The Super Guppy...

I get to see this one up close at most of the Houston airshows where it is permanently assigned for NASA missions...It was built from a late 40's era Boeing 377 airframe, which was developed from the WWII military C-97 cargo plane, which in turn was designed from the Boeing B-29 bomber...The Guppy was refitted with upgraded turboprop engines...The video is from last month in Ohio picking up some bits and pieces for the Orion spacecraft...:bigboy:...Ben

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L1hWZ6JloU

Impressive :clap: :salute:

Here are two similar craft from Airbus for their own use.

I have seen these in Hamburg. They use them to fly big sub-assemblies in to Hamburg for the final assembly. Since they have killed the A380 program I am not sure if these will be needed any longer.

Very cool. I'd like to see those planes in person someday.

Hunter

Had no inkling the platform for that ungangly thing was 70 years old. With the load it carries that has to be a lot of stress on the old metal in those wings.