The air traffic controllers were so doubtful that the plane would even get off the ground that they notified police and fire departments to be on alert. But the Super Guppy proved them wrong. On September 19,the bizarre new aircraft took to the skies near Los Angeles.
When former Air Force pilot Jack Conroy took off and safely landed this specially modified hulk of a plane without a hitch, he inaugurated a new age of airborne transport lead by Aero Spaceline's Guppy family of aircraft. This shiny silver monster, then known as the Pregnant Guppy, looks more like an airship than an aircraft.
It's the epitome of the design philosophy "go big or go home. Along the way, that cavernous cargo space would make the Guppy an indispensable part of humanity's journey to the Moon. Today's Super Guppy is only the latest iteration in a series of specially-built aircraft made by Aero Spacelines, Inc.
Its nickname "Frankenplane" is a literal one, because the the Guppy is actually made of elements from other aircraft. The idea was hatched one evening in when Guppy flygplan was talking with aircraft broker Leo Mansdorf, who had just acquired a number of old Boeing Model Stratocruisers that he hoped to resell.
Conroy had heard that NASA was transporting components for future spacecraft from manufacturers on the West Coast to launch sites on the Eastern seacoast. This was usually a laborious journey via the Panama Canaltaking 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.
It was a crazy idea. Most of the people who looked at it said the thing would never fly with one NASA official saying the design looked like a pregnant guppy—the name stuck. But Conroy was determined, he mortgaged his house to create Aero Spacelines International and began modifying the first Stratocruiser.
Permission was given but required him not to fly over population centers. NASA officials were dubious that this ungainly aircraft which they had not requested was safe enough to transport they're expensive cargo. Although the Pregnant Guppy was only 3, lbs.
Von Braun was sold. The Pregnant Guppy cut the delivery time from factory to the launch site from 18 days to 18 hours, and immediately began transporting components for the Gemini space program. In fact, NASA says they would not have been able to get a man on the moon by without the help of Resor och flyg Guppy.
The Pregnant Guppy was made from not one but two Stratocruisers, with a section of fuselage sawed off one and added to another to stretch it by sixteen feet. The custom-built cargo bay was nineteen feet in diameter, sized to carry stages of the Saturn V rocket.
Fred Austin, a Pregnant Guppy Loadmaster in the 60s, says that usually it was just a matter of moving the trolley backwards and forwards, but on one occasion when the tail section was brought forward again it was out of alignment.
Getting the two to rejoin took some time. After that the trolley was fitted with tillers, so the tail section could be steered easily into place each time. Unlike the Pregnant Guppy, the Super Guppy is pressurized, making it possible to fly above weather.