Airbus Beluga

GETTY IMAGESDAIMLER-BENZ AG

The Airbus A300-600 Super Transporter, commonly called the Beluga, was designed specifically to transport large and awkward aircraft parts, similar to the Dreamlifter. Entering service in 1995, the aircraft largely replaced the Super Guppy, serving European needs for large air cargo.

Different parts of the craft were designed and built by Airbus engineers across Europe, in countries including the U.K., Germany, France, and Spain. It's 124-foot long payload bay can carry almost 52 tons.

Boeing 747

The Dreamlifter is already on the list, but it only represents a small part of the accomplishments of the Queen of the Skies. Over 1,500 Boeing 747s have been built, serving as one of the largest passenger and cargo aircraft in the world (the 747-8 is the latest model), as a military command center in the sky, Air Force One, a space shuttle lifter and infrared telescope flier for NASA, and Iron Maiden even has one called Ed Force One.

The aircraft is being phased out of airlines in favor of single-aisle designs that can now fly with enough range to cross the oceans. But as the only U.S. mass manufactured four-engine jumbo jet, the Boeing 747 has some years in it yet.

Boeing C-17 Globemaster III

BOEING

The C-5 Galaxy may be the United States' biggest military plane, but the C-17 Globemaster is the primary workhorse. The aircraft took its first flight in 1991, and 279 of Globemasters have been built since.

The C-17 airlifter can haul about 85 and a half tons into the sky, flying missions around the world to transport troops and cargo, perform airlifts and medical evacuations, and fly airdrop routes.

Airbus A380

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The Airbus A380 is the European 747, and the A380-800 is the largest passenger aircraft ever made, with room for 850 passengers. It flies some of the longest routes around the planet, but like the 747 may be starting to get replaced with smaller planes with similar range.

A380 production continues as Airbus has built 222 and counting, 101 of those already delivered to the largest customer, Emirates. The Airbus A380 is truly the world's flying bus, flying more people at a time than any other plane in history.

McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender

U.S. AIR FORCE

The largest fuel capacity tanker aircraft in the world entered service in 1981. The KC-10 Extender has a total fuel capacity of 52,250 gallons, or about 175 tons of fuel. It was designed to provide a more capable tanker than the Boeing KC-135, which was about 25 years old at that point.

The Air Force is in the process of acquiring a new tanker, the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, which will be more efficient and have more advanced avionics than the KC-10, but the trijet Extender will still have the Pegasus beat on fuel capacity by about 70 tons. The KC-10 stores jet fuel in three main wing tanks as well as large fuel tanks under the cargo floor. It can alternatively be flown with a crew of 75 and 73 tons of cargo, or 85 tons of cargo in an all-cargo configuration.