Airbus A300-600ST Super Transporter / Beluga

The Airbus A300-600ST Super Transporter, widely known as the Beluga, is a large cargo aircraft derived from the Airbus A300-600 airliner. Its most distinctive feature is an enormous enlarged upper fuselage that gives it a whale-like appearance, allowing it to carry oversized cargo items such as aircraft fuselage sections and wings between Airbus production facilities across Europe. Five Beluga aircraft were built between 1994 and 1999, and they became the backbone of Airbus's intra-company logistics network, transporting major aircraft components from various manufacturing sites in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom to the final assembly lines in Toulouse and Hamburg. The Beluga fleet has been gradually supplemented and eventually replaced in Airbus's own fleet by the larger BelugaXL (A330-700L). However, the original Beluga aircraft have found a second life operated commercially by Airbus Transport International and partner carriers for outsize cargo charter services.