Description of AIRBUS A300-600ST BELUGA
You would like to rent an A300-600ST cargo aircraft and therefore want to know more about this model?
You have clicked on the right page. Also known as the Super Transporter (ST) and as the Beluga, because of its cetacean-like shape, the Airbus A300-600ST is a medium-haul cargo aircraft first commissioned in 1995. It can carry 47 tonnes and cover a maximum distance of 5000 kilometres. Its design facilitates palletised loads.
The Beluga was designed to transport parts for Airbus aircrafts, whose production is dispersed throughout Europe (the wings are made in the United Kingdom, the tailplane in Spain, the fuselage in Germany and the nose in France for example) but whose assembly is carried out in Toulouse or Hamburg. Originally, these parts were transported by the “Super Guppies”, former NASA aircrafts that had to be replaced because they didn’t meet the needs of Airbus’s growing production.
Five Airbus A300-600ST were built and are currently in service.
In 2020, Airbus put its largest cargo aircraft model, the Beluga XL, into service. It surpasses the Beluga ST by seven metres in length and one metre in width and can carry the two wings of an A350XWB airliner in a single trip, whereas the Beluga ST couldn’t.