Aircraft Galleries

All Airbus aircraft are constructed at a variety of locations around the world. Each facility makes a different part of the airplane, and those parts have to be shipped to a central location for assembly into the finished product. To accomplish this, Airbus has used several different methods of transportation, including air transport. They previously used Super Guppies, but the cost of operating these older planes was getting too high to justify the convenience of air transportation. So in 1991, two of Airbus’ major partners, Aérospatiale and DASA, got together to create a replacement.

The result was the Airbus A300-600ST Super Transporter. (The name Beluga became popular with the public, and was soon officially adopted.) There are 5 Belugas in service, each of which can carry 47 tons of cargo. They are used mainly to transport Airbus aircraft components, but are also available for charter flights. They’ve even carried parts of the Internation Space Station (ISS) for the European Space Agency (ESA).