Originally Posted by
Duchess_Driver
... The Guppy aircraft was based on the Boring 337 Stratocruisers ... Beluga is based on the A300/A330 aircraft.
...
I was amuse to hear what had triggered the development of the Beluga (I am sure that someone will correct me if it is not a true story, but it's a fun story anyway!):
Airbus used to use Guppies to fly their big assembled parts around (and they still have an ex-Airbus operated Guppy in their museum at Toulouse). Apparently at some big aviation gathering the top-man in Boeing stated that what delighted him was that the first time an Airbus ever flew was in the back of a Boeing. So Airbus scurried off to develop the Beluga to stop that being true!!