The Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components. It is the successor to the Pregnant Guppy, the first of the Guppy aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc. was an aircraft manufacturer that made a name for itself by converting Boeing B-377 Stratocruisers into the famous Guppy line of aircraft. Company history Aero Spacelines was formed with only one customer in mind. NASA was having difficulty transporting Saturn V rocket boosters from California to... Aero Spacelines, Inc. Five were built in two variants, both of which were colloquially referred to as the "Super Guppy."

Public domain photo by NASA, from http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/guppy/ File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. Click on date to download the file or see the image uploaded on that date. (del...

Public domain photo by NASA, from http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/guppy/ File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. Click on date to download the file or see the image uploaded on that date. (del...

Super Guppy of NASA

Super Guppy versions

The first, the Super Guppy, or "SG", was built directly from the In an aircraft, the fuselage is the main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, athough in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage. The fuselage also serves to position... fuselage of a C-97J Turbo Stratocruiser, the military version of the The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was airliner version of the 367 Boeing Stratofreighter, which in turn was the transport version of B-29 Superfortress. It first flew on July 8, 1947. It was generally considered the greatest airliner in the air before the coming of the 707 and was the flagship... Boeing 377. The fuselage was lengthened to 141 feet (43 m), and ballooned out to a maximum inside diameter of 25 ft (7.6 m), the length of the cargo compartment being 94 ft 6 in (28.8 m). The floor of the cargo compartment was still only 8 ft 9 in (2.7 m) wide, as necessitated by the use of the Stratocruiser fuselage.

In addition to the fuselage modifications, the Super Guppy used upgraded Pratt & Whitney is an American owned aircraft engine manufacturer whose products are widely used in both civil and military aircraft. The company was founded in 1860 by Francis Pratt & Amos Whitney with headquarters in East Hartford, Connecticut. As one of the big three aero-engine manufacturers the company... Pratt & Whitney T-34P7 turboprops for increased power and range, and modified wing and tail surfaces. It could carry a load of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) and cruise at 300 mph (480 km/h).

The second version was officially known as the Super Guppy Turbine (SGT) because the original 377 engines had been replaced with high-performance The Allison Engine Company was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1995. The new company, Rolls-Royce Corporation, allows Rolls-Royce to offer engines in virtually all market segments, from helicopters (e.g Allison AE 1107C Liberty,) to the largest widebody aircraft (e.g. Rolls-Royce Trent.) Categories: Stub | Aircraft engine... Allison 501-D22C A Turboprop or turboshaft engine is a type of gas turbine. It differs from a jet engine in that the design is optimized to produce rotating shaft power, instead of thrust from the exhaust gas. A turboprop builds onto a basic turbojet jet engine by only using the power of... turboprops. Unlike previous Guppies, the fuselage was constructed from scratch. By building from scratch, Aero Spacelines was able to widen the floor of the cargo compartment to 13 ft (4 m). The overall cargo compartment length was increased to 111 ft (33.8 m), and the improved fuselage and engines allowed for a maximum load of 54,500 pounds (24,700 kg). These design improvements, combined with a pressurized crew cabin that allowed for higher-altitude cruising, allowed the SGT to transport more cargo than its predecessors.

The SGT retained only the cockpit, wings, tail, and main landing gear of the 377. The nosegear was taken from the Boeing 707 -- and reversed 180 degrees. This dropped the front of the aircraft slightly, leveling the cargo bay floor and simplifying loading operations.

In the early 1970s, four Super Guppies were used by Airbus S.A.S. is a commercial aircraft manufacturer based in Toulouse, France. It was incorporated in 2001 under French law as a simplified joint stock company or S.A.S. (Société par Actions Simplifiée). Airbus was formerly known as Airbus Industrie and is commonly... Airbus Industrie to transport aeroplane parts from decentralised production facilities to the final assembly plant in The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French, in local Toulouse accent) ( Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced ) is a... Toulouse. The running joke was "Every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing!" They have since been replaced by the The Airbus A300-600ST or Beluga is a version of the standard Airbus A300 wide-body airliner, modified to carry over-sized cargo. Several major aircraft manufacturers are multinational, and it is not unusual for them to have plants in widely separated locations. Airbus, however, is unique in that it... Airbus Beluga.

Only one Super Guppy remains in service: an SGT flown by This article needs cleanup. Please edit this article to conform to a higher standard of article quality. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (established 1958) is the government agency responsible for the United States of Americas space program and long-term general aerospace research. A civilian organization, it... NASA. The other four are mothballed; the SG at Pima Air Force Base, Arizona, and one each in England, France, and Germany.

Related topics

• Aero Spacelines, Inc. was an aircraft manufacturer that made a name for itself by converting Boeing B-377 Stratocruisers into the famous Guppy line of aircraft. Company history Aero Spacelines was formed with only one customer in mind. NASA was having difficulty transporting Saturn V rocket boosters from California to... Aero Spacelines, Inc., the company that produced the Guppy aircraft.
• Pregnant Guppy, the original Guppy.
• The Mini Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components. The Mini Guppy is only one of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc.. Mini Guppy versions Two versions of the Mini Guppy were produced. Both versions are colloquially referred to... Mini Guppy, smaller version of the Guppy.

More information

• "All About Guppys", the best Guppy site on the Internet. Contains extensive information and photos. (http://www.allaboutguppys.com)

External links

• NASA Super Guppy home page (http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/guppy/index.html)
• Johnson Space Center's Super Guppy page (http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/assembly/superguppy/index.html)
• Page about the Boeing B-377, the plane all Guppies were based on (http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/m377.html)