the 1st Guppy took off from LA in 1962, the 2nd version in 1965, and they are still moving oversized cargo, and it's all due to Jack Conroy, who mortgaged his home to frankenplane some 373s when he learned that NASA had to ship through the Panama Canal to get cargo from here to there

The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft that is used for hauling outsize cargo components. It was the successor to the Pregnant Guppy, the first of the Guppy aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines.

The idea was hatched one evening in 1960 when Conroy was talking with aircraft broker Leo Mansdorf, who had just acquired a number of old Boeing Model 377 Stratocruisers that he hoped to resell. The propeller-driven Stratocruiser, based on the B-29 bomber, had been Boeing’s first post-war airliner and was now obsolete thanks to new jet aircraft like the Boeing 707.

Conroy had heard that NASA was transporting components for future spacecraft from manufacturers on the West Coast to launch sites on the Eastern seacoast.

I suspect that was due to manufacturing knowing what it was doing being close to resources, and NASA being a govt pet project for wasting money, and close to Washington DC so politicians could get photo ops. Yes, wasting money, what did they do once they got to the moon? Sent up a golf cart so the country club set could get in 9 holes on the moon, then the whole going to space notion was canned until they realized it was useful for launching spy satellites to keep an eye on communists.

This was usually a laborious journey via the Panama Canal, taking at least 18 days. Instead Conroy wanted to stretch and expand the Stratocruiser's fuselage to transport rocket boosters and other bulky space hardware by plane from the west coast to the launch sites in Florida.

NASA officials were dubious that this ungainly aircraft (with worse aerodynamics which they had not requested) was safe enough to transport their expensive cargo. Conroy convinced Von Braun, and the Guppy cut the time from 18 days to 18 hours, more than 95% better than shipping through the canal.

The Pregnant Guppy immediately began transporting components for the Gemini space program.


Soon one Pregnant Guppy was not enough for NASA’s needs, and it was quickly followed by 5 Super Guppys in 1965. Unlike the Pregnant Guppy, the Super Guppy is pressurized, making it possible to fly above weather.

The Super Guppy also benefited from upgraded engines, which are the same as those in Lockheed's P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft, though its cruising speed of 250 mph is sluggish by modern standards. The propellers come from Lockheed's C-130 Hercules, and the nosewheel is from a Boeing 707—a true frankenplane.


While the C-5 Galaxy (also a badass plane) can carry four times more weight at over 200,000 lbs., the Super Guppy wins by volume. Its payload bay is 25-feet high, 25-feet wide, and 111-feet long. That gives the Super Guppy a whopping 39,000 cubic feet of usable space, compared to the C-5’s 35,000. While the C-5 may be the go-to carrier for heavy loads like main battle tanks, the Super Guppy can take bigger, relatively light cargo like space components.

But the company had no luck with the wider market, and only one Pregnant Guppy and five Super Guppies were ever built. Conroy ceased operations in 1972.

The lack of a production is one reason why a section of the airframe of the original Pregnant Guppy was cannibalized, and is part of NASA’s sole remaining Super Guppy.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a25587413/super-guppy-badass-plane/

NASA’s Orion spacecraft, a new crew capsule that’s designed to take future astronauts on a mission, known as Artemis 1, into deep space and the vicinity of the Moon, was delivered to NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio for two months of tests of extreme temperatures in the largest vacuum chamber in the world.

 The vehicle will experience temperatures from -250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit to simulate the wide range of environments it will experience off of Earth. Orion’s electronics systems will also be tested to make sure they all function as they should at the same time.

The spacecraft is gearing up for its first flight on top of NASA’s future monster rocket, the Space Launch System — a mission, without a crew, that’s supposed to take place in the early 2020s. The flight will send Orion around the Moon on a three-week trip before the capsule heads back to Earth.

Once all of this is done, the Super Guppy will take Orion back to Florida where it will be mounted on top of its future ride, the SLS.

https://www.13abc.com/content/news/NASA-Orion-capsule-lands-in-Ohio-for-months-of-testing-565475162.html
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/26/20983792/nasa-super-guppy-plane-orion-crew-capsule-testing-ohio

I can't find who or when recommended I post this... I think it was Steve. But, hey, better to make a post and forget who mentioned it, than to forget to post but remember who mentioned it. Either way, I'm pretty sure all you regulars know my memory is pretty bad. But my blogging is pretty good. So, there's that