Aero Spacelines Super Guppy


The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Turbine is a large, wide-bodied four engine turboprop cargo aircraft used for transporting 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".
The Super Guppy is the only airplane to carry a complete S-IVB stage, the third stage of the Saturn V rocket. It did so several times during the Apollo program.

Design and development

The first Super Guppy, or "SG", was built directly from a retired USAF Boeing YC-97J Stratofreighter. The fuselage was lengthened to, and ballooned out to a maximum inside diameter of, the length of the cargo compartment being. The floor of the cargo compartment was still only wide, as necessitated by the use of the Stratocruiser fuselage.
In addition to the fuselage modifications, the Super Guppy used Pratt & Whitney T-34-P-7WA turboprop engines for increased power and range, and modified wing and tail surfaces. It could carry a load of and cruise at.
After a month of tests, Super Guppy suffered fuselage collapse on September 25, 1965, when undergoing high speed dives during certification tests. After starting a dive at 10,000 feet the upper fuselage collapsed. The plane had been carrying 30,000 pounds of borate in 100-pound sacks, which were damaged and spilled powder that temporarily blinded the crew. With the help of a DC-9 chase plane, the crew was able to land on the dry bed of Rogers Dry Lake and save the aircraft. After that, Guppy's upper superstructure was redesigned and rebuilt at Edwards [Air Force Base].
The second version was officially known as the Super Guppy Turbine, although the first Super Guppy also used turboprop engines. However, this variant used Allison 501-D22C engines. Unlike the previous Guppy, the main portion of its fuselage was constructed from scratch. By building from scratch, Aero Spacelines was able to widen the floor of the cargo compartment to. The overall cargo-compartment length was increased to, and the improved fuselage and engines allowed for a maximum load of. 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 Stratocruiser|377]. The nose gear was taken from a Boeing 707 and rotated 180 degrees. This dropped the front of the aircraft slightly, levelling the cargo-bay floor and simplifying loading operations.
In the early 1970s, two SGT aircraft were used by Airbus to transport airplane parts from production facilities to the final assembly plant in Toulouse. In 1982 and 1983, two additional Super Guppy Turbines were built by Union de Transports Aériens Industries in France after Airbus bought the right to produce the aircraft. The four Super Guppies were later replaced in this role by the Airbus Beluga, capable of carrying twice as much cargo by weight.

Variants

  • Aero Spacelines B-377-SG Super Guppy, prototype of a much enlarged version of the Guppy using C-97J components, powered by four Pratt & Whitney T-34-P-7WA turbo-prop engines.
  • Aero Spacelines B-377-SGT Super Guppy Turbine, production version powered by Allison 501-D22C turbo-prop engines, using an enlarged cargo section built from scratch instead of being converted from original C-97J components.

Aircraft

One Super Guppy remains in service with NASA. Three are on display, and one was scrapped.

Operators

Current

Former