The giant 'whale in the sky' Beluga XL took off on its first ever flight this morning (Thursday, July 19).

The impressive plane took off from Toulouse in glorious weather to start a new era in air cargo transport, kick starting a 10-month flight test certification campaign leading to planned service entry in 2019.

Today will just involve a short flight so there will be no flyover at Broughton, The Daily Post reports.

But it is hoped its test schedule will see it visiting Broughton before long - which will mean it's likely to be visible over Chester skies.

Before it lands at the airstrip upgrade work needs to be completed at the Flintshire runway to accommodate the plane and this will take place over the summer.

The decision to build the BelugaXL was taken in November 2014 to address the transport and ramp-up capacity requirements for Airbus beyond 2019.

They are based on the A330-200 Freighter, with a large re-use of existing components and equipments.

There will be five put into service in the coming years, initially working alongside the current Beluga ST planes.

The Beluga XL has its enlarged fuselage “bubble” section that is six metres longer and one metre wider than on the Beluga ST.

It is the length of two Beluga whales, the height of a three storey building, and

It gives an extra 30% storage capacity.