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72-399: The Airbus A300-600ST ( Super Transporter ), or Beluga , is a specialised wide-body airliner used to transport aircraft parts and outsize cargoes . It received the official name of Super Transporter early on, but its nickname, after the beluga whale , which it resembles, gained popularity and has since been officially adopted. Due to Airbus's manufacturing facilities being dispersed,

144-432: A 1.12 m (3 ft 8 in) base extension while the tailplane was strengthened and fitted with auxiliary fins to maintain directional stability. The tailplane trim tank was also deleted. To provide access to the cargo area from the front without having to disconnect all electrical, hydraulic and flight control connections (and also avoiding the lengthy recalibrations before each flight that reconnection entailed),

216-564: A Beluga was used to convey the Tranquility module of the International Space Station from Turin to Kennedy Space Center , United States . On 25 January 2022, Airbus announced a service offering outsize cargo transportation using its BelugaST fleet. Airbus Beluga Transport saw additional demand after sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 affected Russian-operated Antonov An-124 services and

288-549: A Boeing". Over time, the Super Guppies grew increasingly unsatisfactory for Airbus's ferrying needs: their age meant that operating expenses were high and ever-increasing, and growing Airbus production required greater capacity than could be provided by the existing fleet. Various options were studied to serve as a replacement transport medium for the Super Guppies, including methods of surface transportation by road, rail, and sea; these alternatives were discarded in favour of

360-454: A big satellite launch. However, this is usually at the cost of not being able to fly to their desired orbit and having to remain on a similar orbit to that of the big satellite. The metal caterpillar treads of a tank wear out quickly when travelling long distances on ordinary roads. Also, tracked vehicles seriously damage the tarmac layer of ordinary roads (unless the caterpillar treads are specially fitted with rubber pads to avoid this). It

432-491: A combination of efficiency and passenger comfort and to increase the amount of cargo space. However, airlines quickly gave in to economic factors, and reduced the extra passenger space in order to insert more seats and increase revenue and profits. Wide-body aircraft are also used by commercial cargo airlines , along with other specialized uses. By the end of 2017, nearly 8,800 wide-body airplanes had been delivered since 1969, with production peaking at 412 in 2015. Following

504-626: A fan diameter of 290 centimetres (116 in), slightly smaller than the GE90 engines on the Boeing 777. The Trent 900 is designed to fit into a Boeing 747-400F freighter for easier transport by air cargo . The interiors of aircraft, known as the aircraft cabin , have been undergoing evolution since the first passenger aircraft. Today, between one and four classes of travel are available on wide-body aircraft. Bar and lounge areas which were once installed on wide-body aircraft have mostly disappeared, but

576-575: A few have returned in first class or business class on the Airbus A340-600 , Boeing 777-300ER , and on the Airbus A380. Emirates has installed showers for first-class passengers on the A380; twenty-five minutes are allotted for use of the room, and the shower operates for a maximum of five minutes. Depending on how the airline configures the aircraft, the size and seat pitch of

648-432: A greater number of passenger seats. Engineers realized having two decks created difficulties in meeting emergency evacuation regulations with the technology available at that time. During the 1960s, it was also believed that supersonic airliners would succeed larger, slower planes. Thus, it was believed that most subsonic aircraft would become obsolete for passenger travel and would be eventually converted to freighters. As

720-492: A principally air-based solution as they were considered time-consuming and unreliable; in addition, the assembly line in Toulouse was not conveniently accessible by any of the surface methods. A key requirement of the new air transporter was the need to accommodate every major component being manufactured by Airbus, including the then-heaviest planned part, the wing of the larger Airbus A340 variants. A speedy development program

792-507: A result, airline manufacturers opted for a wider fuselage rather than a taller one (the 747 , and eventually the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar ). By adding a second aisle, the wider aircraft could accommodate as many as 10 seats across, but could also be easily converted to a freighter and carry two eight-by-eight freight pallets abreast. The engineers also opted for creating "stretched" versions of

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864-576: A rolling road, or rolling highway . A related transportation method is the rail transport of semi-trailers , without road tractors , sometimes referred to as "trailer on flatcar (TOFC)". In the United States, TOFC traffic grew from 1% of freight in 1957 to 5% in 1964 and 15% in 1986. A railway wagon of one track gauge can be carried on a flat wagon ( transporter wagon or rollbock ) of another gauge. In addition, an entire train of coupled wagons of one gauge can be carried on continuous rails on

936-745: A service offering outsize cargo transportation using its Beluga fleet. During the 2010s, Airbus developed a slightly larger successor, the BelugaXL , based on the Airbus A330-200 . This fleet, which entered service in January 2020, is intended to eventually replace the original Beluga fleet, which was entering its third decade. However, all aircraft have remained operational as of November 2024. When Airbus commenced operations in 1970, ground vehicles were initially used to move components and sections; however, growth in production volume soon necessitated

1008-712: A similar manner to that of the A300-based Beluga. At the time, derivatives of both the Airbus A330 and the A340 were studied, including combining the upward-swinging hinged door of the Beluga with a conventional upper deck as an alternative to a side-mounted cargo door in traditional freighter missions. During the 1990s, as a result of reported inquiries to Airbus regarding the type, a niche market for selling Beluga-type aircraft to military customers and freight operators

1080-677: A single Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter from Marseille , France, to Melbourne , Australia, for the Avalon Airshow . In 1999, a Beluga carried a large painting, Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix , which had hung in the Louvre in Paris since 1874. It was flown from Paris to Tokyo via Bahrain and Kolkata in about 20 hours. The large canvas, measuring 2.99 metres (9.81 ft) high by 3.62 metres (11.88 ft) long,

1152-399: A switch to air transport. From 1972 onwards, a fleet of four highly modified Aero Spacelines "Super Guppies" took over. These were 1940s-era Boeing Stratocruisers that had been converted with turbine engines and custom fuselages to carry large-volume loads for NASA 's space program in the 1960s. Airbus' use of the Super Guppies led to the jest that "every Airbus is delivered on the wings of

1224-723: A train of flat wagons of another gauge. This was achieved by the Commonwealth Railways on the Marree railway line in South Australia between Telford Cut and Port Augusta in the mid-1950s. Japan Railways planned a similar " Train on Train " scheme, but at much higher speeds, to operate from 2016. Small ships of all kinds can be piggybacked on larger ships. Examples include lifeboats , landing craft , and minesweepers on motherships , as well as midget submarines on larger submarines , such as those used for

1296-504: A twinjet. Most modern wide-body aircraft have two engines, although the heaviest wide-body aircraft, the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747-8, are built with four engines. The upcoming Boeing 777X-9 twinjet is approaching the capacity of the earlier Boeing 747. The Boeing 777 twinjet features the most powerful jet engine, the General Electric GE90 . The early variants have a fan diameter of 312 centimetres (123 in), and

1368-576: Is 7.4 m (24 ft) in diameter and 37.7 m (124 ft) long; maximum payload is 47 tonnes. In late 1997, in response to the positive performance of the A300-600ST Super Transporter program, SATIC announced that it was in the process of evaluating several different prospective outsize freighter conversions; company chairman Udo Dräger indicated that a larger freighter based on the Airbus A340 could be developed in

1440-400: Is made available for hire by third parties for charter flight. In May 1998, ATI reportedly had an annual revenue target of $ 15 million to be achieved via leasing spare capacity. Over time, the Beluga has been used to carry a variety of special loads, including space station components, large and delicate artwork, industrial machinery, and intact helicopters. The A300-600ST's freight compartment

1512-403: Is most commonly seen in the modern day in the form of a parent carrying an underage child , either for travelling or for children's games . It can involve the carrier crawling on hands and knees with the child straddling over the back like riding a horse , or with the carrier standing upright with the child hugging or cradled behind the back, often with the child's arms leaning over

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1584-480: Is not only influenced by cost and convenience; it is also a matter of aviation history and national interests. Traditionally, each of the Airbus partners makes an entire aircraft section, which would then be transported to a central location for final assembly; even after the integration of Airbus into a single firm, the arrangement had largely remained the same, with Airbus partners becoming subsidiaries or contractors of

1656-524: The 1942 Japanese submarine attack on Sydney . The 1930s British Short Mayo Composite , in which a smaller, four-engine floatplane aircraft named Mercury was carried aloft on the back of a larger four-engine flying boat named Maia, enabled the Mercury to achieve a greater range than would have been possible had it taken off under its own power. The American Space Shuttle was carried on top of specially-modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft when

1728-690: The President of the United States . Some wide-body aircraft have been modified to enable transport of oversize cargo . Examples include the Airbus Beluga , Airbus BelugaXL and Boeing Dreamlifter . Two specially modified Boeing 747s were used to transport the U.S. Space Shuttle , while the Antonov An-225 was initially built to carry the Buran shuttle . Piggyback (transportation)#Air transport Piggyback transportation refers to

1800-743: The United States , it is a requirement to suffix the aircraft's call sign with the word heavy (or super ) when communicating with air traffic control in certain areas. Wide-body aircraft are used in science, research, and the military. Some wide-body aircraft are used as flying command posts by the military like the Ilyushin Il-80 or the Boeing E-4 , while the Boeing E-767 is used for airborne early warning and control . New military weapons are tested aboard wide-bodies, as in

1872-567: The Vickers VC10 and Douglas DC-9 , but with a wide-body fuselage. The British BAC Three-Eleven project did not proceed due to lack of government backing, while the Russian Ilyushin Il-86 wide-body proposal eventually gave way to a more conventional wing-mounted engine design, most likely due to the inefficiencies of mounting such large engines on the aft fuselage. As jet engine power and reliability have increased over

1944-411: The airline seats will vary significantly. For example, aircraft scheduled for shorter flights are often configured at a higher seat density than long-haul aircraft. Due to current economic pressures on the airline industry, high seating densities in the economy class cabin are likely to continue. In some of the largest single-deck wide-body aircraft, such as the Boeing 777, the extra space above

2016-561: The wake turbulence they produce. Because wake turbulence is generally related to the weight of an aircraft, these categories are based on one of four weight categories: light, medium, heavy, and super. Due to their weight, all current wide-body aircraft are categorized as " heavy ", or in the case of the A380 in U.S. airspace, "super". The wake-turbulence category also is used to guide the separation of aircraft. Super- and heavy-category aircraft require greater separation behind them than those in other categories. In some countries, such as

2088-482: The A300-600ST "Beluga" to enter service shortly thereafter. Originally a total of four aircraft were to be built along with an option for a fifth aircraft being available, which was later firmed up. Apart from the first Beluga, each airframe took an average of three years to complete from start to finish; they were built at a rate of one per year. Modification work was performed at Toulouse using components provided by

2160-576: The A350, while the following aircraft were to be progressively introduced as the A300-600 Beluga fleet was withdrawn. The A300-600ST Beluga shares many design similarities, although differing substantially in appearance, to the Airbus A300 upon which it was based. The wings, engines, landing gear, and the lower part of the fuselage remain identical to those used on the conventional A300, while

2232-405: The Airbus assembly line. The fleet's primary task is to carry Airbus components ready for final assembly across Europe between Toulouse, Hamburg, and nine other sites, and they do so 60 times per week. The Beluga fleet is owned by Airbus Transport International (ATI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus Group that was established specifically to operate the type; through this organisation, the fleet

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2304-472: The Beluga resulted in the costs associated with transporting Airbus components dropping to one-third of those being incurred operating the Super Guppy. The cockpit of the Beluga is pressurized but the cargo deck is not, making it inaccessible during flight and unsuitable for cargoes that require a pressurized environment, such as live animals. However, the cargo deck is fitted with a heating module to keep

2376-632: The Beluga, many of which being delivered after its entry to service. In 2011, Pau Pyrénées Airport , a site routinely visited by Belugas, became the first airport in Europe to deploy the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service , which accurately guides the Beluga and other aircraft during landing. In 2015, a dedicated Beluga loading station was opened at Hawarden Airport , preventing high winds from disrupting future operations. A two-bay loading dock

2448-501: The Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 "jumbo jets" have four engines each (quad-jets), but the upcoming Boeing 777X ("mini jumbo jet") is a twinjet. In the mid-2000s, rising oil costs in a post- 9/11 climate caused airlines to look towards newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft. Two such examples are the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 XWB . The proposed Comac C929 and C939 may also share this new wide-body market. The production of

2520-610: The C-5 Galaxy and 150 tonnes for the An-124. Despite this width, the Beluga cannot carry most fuselage parts of the Airbus A380 , which are instead normally transported by ship and road; nevertheless, some A380 components have been transported by Belugas. In January 1996, the Beluga formally entered service, ferrying components from various aerospace sites to the final assembly lines. The geographic location of Airbus manufacturing

2592-590: The DC-10-based Tanker 910 and the 747-200 -based Evergreen Supertanker . Some wide-body aircraft are used as VIP transport. To transport those holding the highest offices, Canada uses the Airbus A310 , while Russia uses the Ilyushin Il-96 . Germany replaced its Airbus A310 with an Airbus A340 in spring 2011. Specially-modified Boeing 747-200s ( Boeing VC-25s ) are used to transport

2664-518: The DC-8 (61, 62 and 63 models), as well as longer versions of Boeing's 707 (-320B and 320C models) and 727 (-200 model); and Douglas' DC-9 (-30, -40, and -50 models), all of which were capable of accommodating more seats than their shorter predecessor versions. The wide-body age began in 1970 with the entry into service of the first wide-body airliner, the four-engined, partial double-deck Boeing 747 . New trijet wide-body aircraft soon followed, including

2736-720: The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the L-1011 TriStar. The first wide-body twinjet , the Airbus A300 , entered service in 1974. This period came to be known as the "wide-body wars". L-1011 TriStars were demonstrated in the USSR in 1974, as Lockheed sought to sell the aircraft to Aeroflot. However, in 1976 the Soviet Union launched its own first four-engined wide-body, the Ilyushin Il-86 . After

2808-689: The United Kingdom and France to the Gulf Coast of the United States as part of disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . The Beluga has seen recurrent use to transport bulky objects, including vehicles, for various different space programs . In 2001, sections of the unmanned Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) space vehicle were transported by a Beluga from Turin , Italy, to Amsterdam , Netherlands . In 2004, multiple Beluga flights were made to Baikonur Cosmodrome , Kazakhstan , to deliver Astrium -built satellites. In 2009,

2880-417: The cabin is used for crew rest areas and galley storage. The term "jumbo jet" usually refers to the largest variants of wide-body airliners; examples include the Boeing 747 (the first wide-body and original "jumbo jet"), Airbus A380 ("superjumbo jet"), and Boeing 777-9 . The phrase "jumbo jet" derives from Jumbo , a circus elephant in the 19th century. Aircraft are categorized by ICAO according to

2952-502: The cargo within an appropriate temperature range. On at least one occasion, a pressurized container has been used for cargo. The aircraft is operated by a crew of three – two pilots and a loadmaster. The main deck cargo volume of the Beluga is greater than that of the C-5 Galaxy or the Antonov An-124, but still smaller than Antonov An-225. However, it is restricted by cargo-weight capacity of 47 tonnes, compared to 122.5 tonnes for

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3024-416: The carrier's shoulders and legs wrapping around the flanks . Piggybacking may also feature in the context of play or sport, and evidence of this dates back to Ancient Greece where games involving piggyback riding were combined with the requirement of catching or throwing a ball. In the modern era, wife carrying competitions, where the female participants ride on the back of their male partners running

3096-564: The company came to favour developing a derivative of its standard A300-600 . In August 1991, a new joint venture company, Super Airbus Transport International (SATIC), was formed to pursue the venture. Construction of the first aircraft began during September 1992; it performed its maiden flight on 13 September 1994. Entering service in September 1995, the Super Transporter was a larger, faster, and more efficient aircraft than

3168-404: The company had a long term need to transport sizeable components, such as wings and fuselage sections, to their final assembly lines. This had been met by a small fleet of Aero Spacelines "Super Guppies" , but these aircraft were aged and increasingly maintenance-intensive to keep in operation. While several different existing aircraft were studied, none were found to be fully satisfactory. Instead,

3240-407: The core, then the engines may be shipped on a Boeing 747 Freighter. The General Electric GE9X , powering the Boeing 777X, is wider than the GE90 by 15 centimetres (6 in). The 560 tonnes (1,230,000 lb) maximum takeoff weight of the Airbus A380 would not have been possible without the engine technology developed for the Boeing 777 such as contra-rotating spools. Its Trent 900 engine has

3312-538: The destruction of the sole Antonov An-225; the company stated that it foresaw in excess of 150 such flights being performed annually. In September 2022, Airbus began testing a new loading system for handling outsized military cargo with the BelugaST fleet. A verification exercise was conducted with the German armed forces, the system’s first customer, during which a Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion military transport helicopter

3384-415: The fleet being able to spare only 130 flight hours for such duties that year. But as more Beluga aircraft were put into service, availability increased drastically, rising to 600 flight hours in 1998 and around 1,000 flight hours in 1999; this effectively enabled one of the five Beluga aircraft to spend much of its operating hours performing charter flights. Amongst the early customers chartering Beluga flights

3456-522: The large Boeing 747-8 and Airbus A380 four-engine, long-haul jets has come to an end as airlines are now preferring the smaller, more efficient Airbus A350, Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 twin-engine, long-range airliners. Although wide-body aircraft have larger frontal areas (and thus greater form drag ) than narrow-body aircraft of similar capacity, they have several advantages over their narrow-body counterparts, such as: British and Russian designers had proposed wide-body aircraft similar in configuration to

3528-463: The larger GE90-115B has a fan diameter of 325 centimetres (128 in). This is almost as wide as the 3.30 metres (130 in) Fokker 100 fuselage. Complete GE90 engines can only be ferried by outsize cargo aircraft such as the Antonov An-124 , presenting logistics problems if a 777 is stranded in a place due to emergency diversions without the proper spare parts. If the fan is removed from

3600-475: The laser weapons testing on the Boeing YAL-1 . Other wide-body aircraft are used as flying research stations, such as the joint German–U.S. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Airbus A340, Airbus A380, and Boeing 747 four-engine wide-body aircraft are used to test new generations of aircraft engines in flight. A few aircraft have also been converted for aerial firefighting , such as

3672-493: The last decades, most of the wide-body aircraft built today have only two engines. A twinjet design is more fuel-efficient than a trijet or quadjet of similar size. The increased reliability of modern jet engines also allows aircraft to meet the ETOPS certification standard, which calculates reasonable safety margins for flights across oceans. The trijet design was dismissed due to higher maintenance and fuel costs compared to

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3744-506: The limited 1,663 m (5,456 ft) runway at Hawarden Airport near Broughton in Wales . In May 2015, Airbus confirmed that the new aircraft would have a 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wider cross-section than its predecessor and provide a 12% increase in payload. The BelugaXL is intended primarily for A350 work, designed to ship two A350 wings simultaneously. The first two aircraft were considered essential to facilitate mass production of

3816-460: The major Airbus partners, formed a 50/50 joint venture company, Super Airbus Transport International (SATIC), based in Toulouse, to develop a new-build replacement for the Super Guppy fleet. The selected starting point for the design was the Airbus A300, leading to the new airframe being designated as the A300-600ST Super Transporter. Following a pre-design period by SATIC, detailed design work

3888-629: The multinational pan-European company. The details vary from one model to another, but the general arrangement is for the wings and landing gear to be made in the UK, the tail and doors in Spain, the fuselage in Germany, and the nose and centre-section in France, with final assembly in either Toulouse , France; Hamburg , Germany; or Seville , Spain. On 24 October 1997, the last of Airbus's Super Guppy freighters

3960-524: The preceding Super Guppies. A total of five aircraft were built for Airbus; while additional new-build aircraft were offered to prospective operators by SATIC during the 1990s, no other customers ordered the type. In addition to its primary task of conveying Airbus components, the Super Transporter fleet has occasionally been used for charter flights , carrying outsized cargoes for various customers and purposes, from whole helicopters to industrial equipment and humanitarian aid. On 25 January 2022, Airbus announced

4032-575: The program, this sum included the aircraft themselves, the cargo loading system, and program management. In September 1992, construction work began on the first aircraft, the maiden flight of which took place in September 1994. Following a total of 335 flight hours being performed during the test program, restricted certification of the type was awarded by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in October 1995, enabling

4104-470: The race, are popular in some countries. In rail transport, the practice of carrying trailers or semi-trailers in a train atop a flatcar is referred to as "piggybacking". Early drawings of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway c1830 show road coaches being piggybacked on railway flat wagons. The rail service provided for trucks which are carried on trains for part of their journey is referred to as

4176-426: The shuttle landed at places other than Kennedy Space Center. In space transportation systems, a smaller satellite that is carried as a secondary payload on a launch is said to be "piggybacked" on the main launch. It is often the case of small satellites and cubesats , since they can not usually afford accessing space on a dedicated launch and they choose instead to take profit of the remaining payload capacity in

4248-466: The standard A300 cockpit was relocated down below the cargo-floor level. By relocating the cockpit in this manner, loading times were halved from those typically achieved with the Super Guppy, which had needed to disconnect and reconnect such systems. Another reason for faster loading times was the adoption of a roll-on/roll-off loading system, as well as the ability to unload the aircraft in winds of up to 40 knots. The qualities and improved capabilities of

4320-557: The success of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 in the late 1950s and early 1960s, airlines began seeking larger aircraft to meet the rising global demand for air travel. Engineers were faced with many challenges as airlines demanded more passenger seats per aircraft, longer ranges and lower operating costs. Early jet aircraft such as the 707 and DC-8 seated passengers along either side of a single aisle, with no more than six seats per row. Larger aircraft would have to be longer, higher ( double-deck aircraft ), or wider in order to accommodate

4392-480: The success of the early wide-body aircraft, several subsequent designs came to market over the next two decades, including the Boeing 767 and 777 , the Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 , and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 . In the "jumbo" category, the capacity of the Boeing 747 was not surpassed until October 2007, when the Airbus A380 entered commercial service with the nickname "Superjumbo". Both

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4464-424: The transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else. It is a specialised form of intermodal transportation and combined transport . Piggyback is a corruption of pickaback , which is likely to be a folk etymology alteration of pick pack (1560s), which perhaps is from pick , a dialectal variant of the verb pitch . A person carrying someone else on their back

4536-403: The upper part of the fuselage forms an enormous horseshoe-shaped structure 7.7 m (25 ft) in diameter. In comparison with the Super Guppy, the payload was more than doubled and the volume increased by more than 30% The General Electric CF6-80C2 turbofan engines used are slightly uprated from those used on the standard A300 as well. The vertical stabilizer uses a modified A340 fin with

4608-440: Was Boeing. In June 1997, a world record was set for the most voluminous payload to be carried by an aircraft when a Beluga was used to transport a chemical tank for a merchant vessel from Clermont-Ferrand to Le Havre , France. In February 2003, a single Beluga performed the farthest distance charter flight ever, having flown for 25 hours (not including refuelling stops) to transport two complete NHI NH90 helicopters along with

4680-558: Was also examined; but sales were considered 'unlikely' to take place by the late 1990s. Its unit cost is €183 million. In November 2014, Airbus announced that it was proceeding with the development of a larger replacement based on the Airbus A330-200, planning to replace the BelugaST fleet entirely by 2025. The BelugaXL entered service in 2020. Airbus previously considered the A330-300 and A340-500, but each required too much of

4752-456: Was also required to have the prospective type take over duties from the Super Guppy fleet, scheduled to be withdrawn in the mid-1990s. Several different types of aircraft were examined for potential use, including the Antonov An-124 , Antonov An-225 , Ilyushin Il-86 , Boeing 747 , Boeing 767 , Lockheed C-5 Galaxy , and McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III ; the use of any existing aircraft

4824-403: Was eventually ruled out due to a lack of internal space for the desired components; the use of a piggyback solution was also dismissed as impractical. Boeing made an offer to convert several Boeing 767s for the requirement, but this was viewed as less advantageous than purpose-built aircraft using Airbus' existing twin-engined Airbus A300-600R . In August 1991, Aérospatiale and DASA , two of

4896-450: Was loaded into a Beluga. Data from Airbus, Airbus: Beluga General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Wide-body aircraft By comparison, a typical narrow-body aircraft has a diameter of 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 ft), with a single aisle, and seats between two and six people abreast. Wide-body aircraft were originally designed for

4968-598: Was opened in Toulouse in 2019, receiving 85–100 flights per week, as the five A300-600STs are operated 7,600 hours a year together. By enclosing the forward section, including the open large cargo door, a faster one hour and 20 minutes turnaround , down from two hours and 30 minutes, could be achieved, along with reduced weather-related restrictions. In addition to its primary supply duties to Airbus' production facilities, Belugas have often performed charter flights for various purposes. In 1997, ATI claimed that it had to reject eight out of ten requests for commercial Beluga flights,

5040-458: Was performed by Aérospatiale and DASA while subcontractors were selected to complete the 15 separate work packages; amongst these subcontractors, CASA was selected to produce the upper fuselage, Dornier provided the hydraulic systems, and Sogerma performed the final assembly work. The A300-600ST was not a like-for-like replacement, being larger, faster, and more efficient than the preceding Super Guppies. Airbus elected to invest $ 1 billion into

5112-483: Was retired and its outsize cargo mission from that point onwards being exclusively performed by the new A300-600ST fleet. In 1997, the second year of Beluga operations, the fleet accumulated in excess of 2,500 flight hours across more than 1,400 flights. By 2012, the fleet was performing roughly 5,000 flight hours per year and further increases were being publicly anticipated by Airbus. Various infrastructure upgrades have been made at multiple locations to better accommodate

5184-468: Was too large to fit into a Boeing 747. It was transported in the vertical position inside a special pressurized container provided with isothermal protection and an anti-vibration device. In 2004, a Beluga delivered relief supplies to the Indian Ocean region following widespread devastation of coastal areas by a major tsunami . In 2005, the type transported humanitarian aid and medical supplies from

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