Airbus built the Beluga freighter to fly wings between plants, replacing the Super Guppy

Airbus builds its airliners from sections made in different countries — wings in one plant, fuselages in others — so moving giant components between sites is the heart of its industrial system. Until the mid-1990s that meant flying parts in the 'Super Guppy', a converted Boeing design that was already outdated.

Worse, Airbus was depending on a couple of aircraft from its chief rival, Boeing, for its own logistics. To keep up with growth, it built its own solution: the A300-600ST Super Transporter, nicknamed the Beluga, which first flew on September 13, 1994 and entered service in 1995.

The design cut the top off an A300-600 airframe and added a wider fuselage hump 7.1 metres in diameter, with the cockpit lowered so cargo loads through the nose. The five Belugas carry payloads of up to 47 tonnes and make over 60 flights a week between 11 sites.

The Beluga became the connective tissue of Airbus's European production — wings, fuselage sections, even outsized freight charters — letting the company scale assembly to record rates.