Airbus A300-608ST
Super Transporter
The A300-600ST
Super Transporter (nicknamed Beluga) based on
the A300-600 airliner was designed to replace
Airbus Industries Super Guppy transports, used
by the consortium to ferry oversize components
such as wings and fuselage sections between
Airbus' partners' plants throughout western
Europe.
The Airbus Super
Transporter features the widest fuselage
cross-section of any aircraft, civil of
military, and his main deck cargo volume is
greater than the Lockheed C-5B Galaxy, Antonov
124 and Boeing C-17.
Airbus A300B4-608ST Super
Transporters are also available for charter
flights for third parties. Air Transports
Internationals home base is in
Toulouse,
France
adjacent to Airbus.
In 1999 the
Beluga carried a famous very large painting from
the Musée du Louvres in Paris to Tokyo. In
February 2003, it transported three helicopters
for Eurocopter to Australia, while in 2004 it
made three trips to Baïkonur, the historical
Russian launch site, to deliver three Astrium
satellites. In September 2005, the Beluga
contributed to the Hurricane Katrina, New
Orleans, USA, emergency relief effort with 30
tonnes of tents, blankets, camp beds and a
mobile hospital.
The "Beluga" has flown two
new production NH90 helicopters from Marseille,
France to Berlin in Germany, the transport of
two operational United Nations CH-53s from
Larnaka in Cyprus to Frankfurt, Germany, and the
shipment of an EH-101 from Milan, Italy to
Fairbanks, Alaska.
