Pregnant Guppy The Aero Spacelines B-377PG Pregnant Guppy, seen here, was flown to Dryden for tests and evaluation by pilots … Digging Deeper As stated above, the Super Guppy had been developed from the Pregnant Guppy which in turn was based on the C-97 military cargo plane, itself based on the … The Super Guppy is the descendant of the Pregnant Guppy, the first Guppy aircraft produced by the company. Thanks to all of you for your hard work and dedication on the Guppy project and countless others that made this country great. Retrieved … It was a version of the Boeing Stratocruiser airliner, on which the first two thirds of the fuselage had been blown up like a balloon to create a cavernous cargo space. She and her little sister, the "Pregnant Guppy," have carried a billion dollars worth of space equipment for NASA, and undoubtedly helped to speed up the US timetable for conquest of the moon. In honor of the earlier NASA officials off-handed comment, he named the plane the “Pregnant Guppy.” This was done by adding a 16 ft. 8 in. As the space program grew through the late 1960s, this one aircraft clearly could not handle the whole transport load, so 25 more Stratocruisers and ex-USAF C-97s were purchased to construct four Super Guppy aircraft, which were even longer and larger than the original. Conroy returned to California and mortgaged his house, used his personal savings and borrowed everything he could to build the plane on his own.  He even sold his car to fund the project.  It still wasn’t enough and he was able to find venture capital funding from William Ballon.  Lacking funds to “do it right”, he coined an operating phrase that would carry him through the project, “Built to suit, draw to match, and paint to cover.”  In essence, Aero Spacelines cut years off of the development time by just doing it, cobbling the parts together with 2×4 braces, hope and baling wire.  What worked they drew into engineering plans after the fact.  While risky, Conroy just had to hope that his prototype would fly. ui_manufacturer=Boeing ui_type=377 "Pregnant Guppy" ui_variation="NASA" ui_typerole="Four Engine Prop" ui_createdby="A2A … Unlike the Pregnant Guppy, the Super Guppy is pressurized, making it possible to fly above weather. Everywhere we go there is a crowd waiting for us and I love to talk about the aircraft, its incredible history, and our mission.”. cool 3.1 years ago. Not your average flying fish. The Super Guppy's most precious cargo was the lunar-excursion module Eagle and the command ship Columbia flown by Apollo … Here are some of the strangest and/or ugliest looking aircrafts from around the … The Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the United States and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably NASA's components of the Apollo program. By the way, Airbus actually used a fleet of Super Guppies to transport airplane pieces before they developed their Belugas. Air shipment seemed reasonable enough.  The rocket components were extremely lightweight, though the problem was that they were simply huge.  No aircraft had a cargo hold large enough as just one stage of the rocket was 40 feet long and 18 feet in diameter.  Conroy started working the problem, literally on the back of a napkin with Mansdorf.  Together, they thought that it might be possible to modify a B377 by adding a larger cargo bay atop the fuselage.  He prepared a rough design series with some drawings and presented the idea to NASA in person, hoping for funding. The Pregnant Guppy was constructed using B-377 N1024V and parts of B-377 (c/n 15976). NASA's Flight Research Center assisted in certification testing of the first Pregnant Guppy in 1962. Studio Editions. At just over 19’ in diameter, this massive cavity was specifically designed to carry the second stage of a Saturn rocket for the Apollo program. The various Guppy aircraft served throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond, initially transporting space components, and later, as NASA scaled down its operations after the success of the Apollo program, transporting airliner sections.[1]. [3] When Van Nuys traffic control realized that Conroy intended to take off, they notified police and fire departments to be on alert. The construction was done in three main phases. Otherwise, the procedures and characteristics are the same as the standard Stratocruiser. “ Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. Its predecessor, which looked very similar and carried components of the Apollo moon program, was appropriately named Pregnant Guppy. In the end, John Conroy’s Super Guppy was the key aircraft that got America to the Moon.  Wernher von Braun gave Conroy and his company the ultimate compliment when he summed it up succinctly, “The Guppy was the single most important piece of equipment to put a man on the moon in the decade of the 1960s.”  Against all odds and based on just his own faith in his idea, his own funds and his hopes, John Conroy had made history. Data from Jane's All The Worlds Aircraft 1965–66,[6] Jane's All The Worlds Aircraft 1971–72[7], Outsize cargo conversion of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. The Pregnant Guppy (registered N1024V)[2] was built from an ex-Pan Am airframe with a five-m section from an ex-British Overseas Airways Corporation aircraft (G-AKGJ) added immediately behind the wing. Even though NASA was lukewarm on the project at first, Conroy mortgaged his house and started a company with Mansdorf called Aero Spacelines to pursue the project. If so by what company? The Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy was a heavy cargo plane used for transporting large and bulky items by air. This monster, designed for Apollo rocket stages, could easily swallow a … Guppy. However, the NASA management doubted that it could work.  Several professional aeronautical engineers reviewed the concept and declared it unworkable.  One NASA official quipped that the contraption looked like a “pregnant guppy”.  The trip wasn’t entirely a loss, however, as he found some interested and supportive parties — if he could make it work, they told him, a contract would likely follow….  But of course, no guarantees.  One of those who expressed support was the famous Wernher von Braun, who liked Conroy’s swashbuckling, can-do attitude. The Super Guppy was built using a Boeing C-97 cargo plane. Updated August 31, 2004. The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy was first created in 1962 as a successor to the aptly-named Pregnant Guppy cargo aircraft. The Pregnant Guppy in early flights during 1963. The name Aero Spacelines selected for its unique plane was a natural. The NASA ocean-going tug, Apollo, loaded with an S1C rocket stage. NASA has a long history of developing specialized transportation devices for its rockets and equipment.  While the Super Guppy was big, it was still far short of the size and load bearing capacity needed to transport the Space Shuttle fleet.  For that requirement, NASA instead settled on a piggy back design, mounting the Shuttle on a set of pylons above the top of a Boeing 747 that had been modified specifically for that purpose.  Meanwhile, Airbus and Boeing borrowed from Conroy’s Pregnant Guppy concept and build their own “volumetric” designs.  These specialty aircraft still fly today all over the world. A friend and I became regulars at the airport. @twv23 thx. It's a Plane: One man's obsession, it helped get us to the moon Tripp, Robert S. Spring 2002, American Heritage of Invention and Technology "Boeing 377 Pregnant Guppy" by Kenneth W. Shanaberger. Np bro. London. Even before the Pregnant Guppy made its first flight, however, both NASA and Conroy knew they needed a roomier plane. [1] The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines. Flying is one thing and flying with grace like the Concorde is another. [1], Conroy presented his plans for an extensively modified Stratocruiser to NASA, where an official commented that the bloated aircraft resembled a pregnant guppy. Do you have any info on what happened to the company? We got caught but the one who caught us gave us a complete tour and I got to sit in the captains seat — it was the ‘Pregnant Guppie’. The coastal plain gave way to the hills and straight ahead was the town of Boron, California.  They were still skimming the tops of bushes and hills as they neared the town.  As an awkward silence filled the cockpit.  Nothing seemed to work, even as the pilots gingerly tried to climb the plane.  If they turned, they would fall off their altitude and hit the ground. Aircraft broker Leo Mansdorf was stockpiling surplus Stratocruisers at Van Nuys prior to resale, and ex-USAF pilot John M. Conroy realized the potential of these aircraft to transport the large but relatively light rocket components. Photo: Unknown Wikipedia Commons. Photo credit: NASA/MSFC/Janet Sudnik 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 … I came to this site to get a link to some photos of the Guppy for a friend of mine after telling him my story. Carrying the S-IV Saturn I rocket stage, the Guppy saved three weeks' transit time versus barge,[4] for a cost of $16.00 (equivalent to $131.9 today) per mile (1.6 km).[5]. I am working on a project which started with the stress analysis provided by Strato. The design also inspired similar … He would have to borrow fuel for the cross country flight.  Conroy had over $1 million invested in the project — he was flat broke and had a long line of creditors hounding him. For more photos of the Pregnant Guppy, Super Guppy and Super Guppy Transport, visit: Eugene Stanley is my father-in-law. So Aero Spacelines created the Very Pregnant Guppy, with an inner diameter of 25 feet and a cargo compartment 94Vi feet long. 17.8k SemedianIndustries. During the early years, the transportation of outsize cargo has always been a dilemma for government and private logistics planners. [1] The design also … B377PG Pregnant Guppy. • "Model 377 Stratocruiser Commercial Transport" by Boeing. Airbus' Pregnant Guppy The Airbus Guppy livery is now on my website in the repaints section under "military and vintage" - help yourselves. The aircraft was named for its striking resemblance to a pregnant guppy … The aircraft first flew on September 19, 1962, piloted by Conroy and co-pilot Clay Lacy. Retrieved October 5, 2006. In case you were wondering how the Guppy … L'Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy era un quadrimotore da trasporto a fusoliera allargata sviluppato dall'azienda statunitense Aero Spacelines nei primi anni sessanta. A Super Guppy, with its nose and cockpit opened for loading, takes in the X-24B and HL-10 lifting bodies for transportation to WPAFB in May 1976. Historic Wings is pleased to present our daily story celebrating what happened today in aviation history. The plane flew much as a normal Boeing 377, with the exception of some additional drag. . Wait, what was that plane I had requested again? Returning to California with the promise of a contract Conroy was able to hold his creditors at bay while the team at Aero Spacelines did the work to turn the mock-up into a real cargo carrier.  They cut away the “inner” fuselage and rewired the plane and control systems to allow the huge cargo bay to be used.  The plane flew perfectly.  Soon they had put over 50 hours of test flying.  The last remaining challenge was to prove that the plane could carry the heavy loads required. Designed by Aero Spacelines, an American aircraft manufacturer from 1960 to 1968, the Super Guppy was introduced in 1965. I was raised in Van Nuys, near Balboa Boulevard and a few miles from the Van Nuys Airport. Among its early duties was transporting the first and second stages of the Gemini program's Titan II from the Martin Co. in Baltimore, Maryland, to Cape Canaveral. As the space program increased through the late 1960s, it became clear that this one aircraft could not carry the whole transport load, and so 25 more Stratocruisers and ex-USAF C-9… Apparently, Jack Conroy had GREAT confidence that his design would work! 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.Five were built in two variants, both of which were colloquially referred to as the "Super Guppy". On September 19, 1962, they logged the first test flight. A better solution than sea lift had to be found. 2.9 years ago. The Super Guppy … Because of the restrictions of land travel, passing ov… I can personally attest to the fact that many times I had to drive to the Van Nuys Airport, climb up the scaffolding surrounding the plane and find a specific location of modification, make drawings on a yellow tablet, take some tiny black and white photos and return to Strato to make the drawings match what was already built. ... nose at the front of the huge plane. The Pregnant Guppy loads a Saturn booster. In August 1962 I was a draftsman at Strato Engineering, a Burbank firm subcontracted to AeroSpace and charged with making drawings for the conversion process on the Pregnant Guppy. I own some of the old Wardlow STC’s for the conversions to the Stinson SR-10F. Photo Credit: NASA. "Model 377 Stratocruiser Commercial Transport", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aero_Spacelines_Pregnant_Guppy&oldid=990907994, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 November 2020, at 05:26. Conversion work was undertaken by On Mark Engineering. The entire rear section (including tail surfaces) was detachable to allow cargo to be loaded directly into the fuselage. A Super Guppy departs Edwards AFB en route to Johnson Space Center. Did it get bought out? Among its early duties was transporting the first and second stages of the Gemini program's Titan II from the Martin Co. in Baltimore, Maryland to Cape Canaveral.