20 Years Ago, Airbus Created A Bizarre Plane To Fly Jumbo Jet Parts Around The World

European planemaker Airbus is based in Toulouse, France, but produces planes in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and China.

To transport the wings and fuselages of half-built planes from one factory to another, it needed a plane bigger than any standard cargo jet.

So it built the Beluga.

Developed in the 1990s and based on the A300 (the wings, engines, landing gear, and lower portion of the fuselage are the same), the Beluga has one of the biggest cargo holds in the world.

It's the best way to get the body of a jumbo jet, a fleet of helicopters, or even a priceless painting across the planet. It's also one of the strangest looking planes in the skies today.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Beluga's inaugural flight on September 13, 1994 (via Jalopnik), we're taking a closer look at this unique plane.

Alex Davies wrote the original version of this post.