One of the strangest-looking aircraft ever built briefly touched down in Vietnam in November 2024, when an Airbus Beluga XL landed at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport for a refuelling stop before continuing on. Per Hanoi Radio and Television, it was the first time the type had ever visited the country — and its beluga-whale silhouette quickly drew crowds of curious onlookers and aviation photographers.

The Beluga XL is not a passenger jet and not a normal freighter. Airbus built it for one job: hauling oversized aircraft parts between its factories. The fuselage is swollen to a diameter of roughly 8.8 metres, with a cockpit set low to leave the cargo bay unobstructed. A bespoke upward-swinging nose door lets huge components roll straight in — something no standard cargo plane can manage.

The numbers are striking. The aircraft is 63.1 metres long, 18.9 metres tall, with a 60.3-metre wingspan. It can carry up to 51 tonnes over a range of about 4,000 kilometres (2,200 nautical miles). Airbus has offered a few vivid comparisons: as long as two blue whales, as tall as a three-storey building, with a hold big enough for 26 compact cars or seven adult elephants.

What makes the XL version notable is capacity. It can carry two complete A350 wings — each 30 metres long — in a single trip, or the largest A350 fuselage sections. Its predecessor, the Beluga ST, managed only one wing per flight. The new model is about seven metres longer and a metre wider, giving Airbus roughly 30% more transport capability. Power comes from a pair of Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines mounted on wings borrowed from the A330.

The type entered full commercial service in January 2020, and Airbus now runs a fleet of six through Airbus Transport International, its in-house airline. Program head Bertrand George has called the aircraft the company's workhorse, noting that without it, Airbus simply could not build aeroplanes at its current pace. The fleet shuttles wings, fuselages and other subassemblies between production sites across Europe every day.

For travellers, why care? Plane spotters in Hanoi got a rare treat, and it's a reminder that some of aviation's most photogenic machines appear at unexpected airports on technical stops. If you're passing through Noi Bai and spot an enormous white whale taxiing past your window, you'll know what it is.