Hyderabad: The world's largest cargo plane shaped like a whalefish landed at the Shamshabad airport in Hyderabad on Sunday night. The cargo plane named Beluga landed at the airport to refuel en route from Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai to Pattaya Airport in Thailand. It departed from the Shamsabad airport on Monday at 7.20 pm.
Also read: World's largest cargo plane leaves UK with 3 oxygen units for India
Beluga is among only five such cargo planes manufactured by the Airbus company. While cargo planes have loading and unloading facilities from the rear side, Beluga opens from the front. Before Beluga, Ukraine's Antonov AN-225 Mriya was known as the world's largest cargo plane, but was shot down by Russia in the ongoing war. Beluga started the first flight on September 13, 1994, and it commenced services in 1996. As for the dimensions, the plane is 184.3 feet long, and 56.7 feet high with a wing area of 2,800 sq. ft. The aircraft weighs 86.5 tonnes with a cargo capacity of 47 tonnes.
