Since the early years of Airbus, its decentralized nature has required the planemaker to transport aircraft components from various parts of Europe to a final assembly facility. Before developing its own Beluga and subsequent Beluga XL, it was often said that “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing.” Let’s briefly look at how Boeing (very) indirectly gave Airbus a helping hand in those early years and why this was necessary. //

In its early years, Airbus made use of two Super Guppy aircraft, built by an American company by the name of Aero Spacelines. This company, and its Super Guppy product, was formed with the main intent of providing NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) a way to transport large cargo between facilities.

The Super Guppy was actually a modified C-97 Stratocruiser, which is the military variant of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. This is how the phrase “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing” came to be.