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John Brecher / msnbc.com
A crowd in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle watches NASA's Super Guppy aircraft approach Boeing Field, carrying a key piece of a space shuttle mockup that will go on display at Seattle's Museum of Flight.
SEATTLE — It may not be a real space shuttle, but it's ours.
Today NASA delivered a key piece of the mockup that astronauts used for space shuttle practice to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, my hometown. And it arrived aboard one of the most ungainly-looking airplanes ever built. The wingless mockup is known as the Full Fuselage Trainer, or FFT. The plane has a nickname that's more colorful: the Super Guppy.
The Super Guppy looks more like a Super Whale. The wide-body turboprop airplane has a cargo hold that's been built up into a bulbous shape, specifically to carry big stuff for outer space. Only five of the Guppies were ever produced, and they were used to cart spacecraft components around for the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and shuttle programs. This Super Guppy is the only one of its kind still flying, and this week's odyssey with the most important piece of the Full Fuselage Trainer is one of the highest-profile flights the plane has ever taken.
For decades, the plywood-built FFT sat in a building at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew compartment — the part of the structure that was flown to Seattle today — was outfitted with all the buttons, switches, cockpit displays and middeck lockers that the real shuttles had. None of those gadgets worked, but they helped the astronauts get familiar with the layout before they started handling the real controls. Astronauts could also practice how they'd get out of the shuttle in the event of a landing-strip emergency.
With the end of the space shuttle era, NASA's Johnson Space Center no longer needed the FFT, so the space agency decided to donate it for display. The Seattle museum made a play for one of the flown shuttles, and even built a shuttle-sized, 15,500-square-foot Space Gallery to display it in. But Seattle lost out to Florida, California, New York and the "other Washington" in the competition for Atlantis, Endeavour, Enterprise and Discovery. The Full Fuselage Trainer served as the consolation prize.
Most of the FFT's plywood parts could be shipped up by traditional means for later assembly, but the shuttle crew compartment had to be transported all in one piece. That's why NASA's Super Guppy was called into service.
The airplane has a 25-foot-high, 25-foot-wide, 111-foot-long cargo compartment — big enough to hold the mockup's most awkward piece, even when it's bound up in shrink wrap and a protective steel frame. Over the past couple of days, the Super Guppy has been making a journey from its home at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas, over to California, and then up to Seattle at a top speed of around 200 knots. It wasn't exactly a record-setting pace — but what the Super Guppy lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in the "What the Heck Is That?" department.
The Guppy flew over my hometown and its surroundings with a Seattle-born astronaut, Greg Johnson, at the controls. Then it floated down to a landing right in front of the museum, which is adjacent to Boeing Field. One of the commentators at the museum called it a "beautifully ugly airplane."
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire pointed to the craft with pride as the sky spit down rain. "When we get together in Washington state, we can land the big whale right behind me," she said.
Museum of Flight
NASA's Super Guppy and a chase plane fly above the mostly cloudy skies of Seattle.
Museum of Flight
After its touchdown at Seattle's Boeing Field, the turboprop-powered Super Guppy taxis over to the Museum of Flight next door.
Museum of Flight
The entire front of the Super Guppy swings open to reveal the cargo inside.
Museum of Flight
The 65,000-pound Tunner 60K aircraft cargo loader and transporter rolls toward the Super Guppy.
Museum of Flight
The cargo compartment for the Full Fuselage Trainer, wrapped in protective plastic, has been taken out of the Super Guppy for a short ride on the Tunner transporter to its new home in the Museum of Flight's Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.
Several thousand onlookers watched as the Super Guppy's entire front opened up to the side like a four-story-high door.
"It's really cool that it's actually able to fly," Allison Kirkman, a 10-year-old student at Spirit Ridge Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash., told me as she watched from the tarmac. "It's an amazing plane, and how they built it is cool, too."
The shrink-wrapped shuttle crew compartment was moved out of the wide-yawning Super Guppy onto a 65,000-pound mobile transporter, then rolled over to the museum's Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. Over the next couple of months, the shuttle mockup will be assembled in a place of honor, alongside a Russian Soyuz capsule and a prototype lander that was used in Blue Origin's spacecraft development program. Museumgoers like Kirkman will be able to walk through the shuttle mockup's cargo bay — and they might even be able to crawl through the crew compartment, just like the astronauts did.
Kids, prepare to be amazed ... again.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
cool
A feel good piece trying to compensate for the dying off of basic science at NASA and in the federally funded regime of basic science R&D.
Now that NASA can spend ALL of it's funds on basic science and research, the true mission of space exploration can continue. When the shuttle was announced, in the mid 70's, I was dismayed that we would limit ourselves to LEO (Low Earth Orbit). To me, that was a step BACKWARDS! Sure, it was cool to have a "space truck", that could land like an airplane, but it was very expensive and limiting in it's capabilities. I'm glad we are back to the original mission. Leave the LEO stuff to the private sector, and the military.
It looks like a porpoise.
awesome, seattle gets screwed again.... we get the fake one with no working buttons.
"The Airbus-built, wide-body turboprop airplane"
No it isn't. The Guppy planes were built by Aero Spacelines and were based on the C-97 transport. The C-97 was in turn based on the WWII B-29.
Actually, the record is a little fuzzy on that point. Because it's rather fuzzy, I've removed the reference to "Airbus-built," even though that's what my colleague Robert Pearlman (who knows more about space history than I'll ever know) says:
http://www.space.com/16318-space-shuttle-trainer-nasa-super-guppy-takes-off.html
The first Guppies were definitely built by Aero Spacelines, but this one comes from later production. Various reports indicate that it was built in 1980 and entered service in 1983. At that time, at least some of the production shifted to France. Here's what Wikipedia says: " In 1982 and 1983 two additional Super Guppies were built by UTA Industries in France after Airbus bought the right to produce the aircraft."
NASA's backgrounder on the Super Guppy says that this plane was ordered by Airbus ... but by that time, Aero Spacelines had scrapped all of the airframes that it could have used. So it shipped lower-level parts to France for "incorporation" into the airplane during assembly.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/stories/2005/061705_guppy.html
NASA basically acknowledges, then, that final assembly took place in France, as Wikipedia indicates. But maybe it would be impolitic for NASA to say that it's using a "French-built" plane. If you or anyone else has any information to straighten all of this out (rather than relying on secondhand references, as I have to do), I'd love to hear it.
....AND the C-97 was also configured as a KC-97, a refueler. We had a "Base C-97" up in Goose Bay, Labrador. And if I'm not mistaken, Eastern Airlines had a few of the commercial versions of the C-97, and the layout contained a lounge in the rear of the plane.
As someone who chatted with the crew today (I was a volunteer at the MOF for this), I can tell you where it really came from, based on what they told me:
This particular guppy was built by Airbus, in Europe. Construction on it began in 1957. NASA received it in return for favors. Airbus wanted to launch stuff into space, NASA said they'd do it if they got the plane. Airbus gave them the plane, and NASA launched the cargo. The Guppy was then put into service for NASA.
From what I gathered (and from what you said), it sounds like this craft was modified in the '80s, and so it appears it was the airframe the crew was referring to when they said construction started in the '50s.
I will note that they didn't tell me when NASA acquired this particular guppy...that seems to be a point of contention. I can ask them tomorrow though - I'm down there again for a meet-and-greet.
The "Super Guppy's" attraction is its rather strange bloated appearance ....
The claimed biggest cargo carrier is the Ukrainian , Antanov AN-225 ....
Here's a great fly by at an air show of the Antanov AN-225 ....
Check out the landing gear ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOMiKpmBmtg
And here's a link to some other massive planes with some added fake imagined massive and strange concept planes ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOMiKpmBmtg
Thanks Alan ....
Yes, This one was in fact built in France. All the service
manuals for this bird are written in French. Some of the mechanics who have
worked on it recently had to have portions of the Tech manuals translated. This plane is a hodge-podge of parts from
several aircraft. The Landing gear are turned around backwards, the outboard
wings came from a different aircraft than the portion closest to the fuselage.
The flight deck is spliced from the C-97. The original
engines have been replaced to provide more power.
The NASA Super Guppy was not manufactured by Airbus. It was manufactured by Aero Spacelines Inc. of Santa Barbara, California, and the design was based on the Boeing Model 377 (military version was called the C-97) Stratocruisers.
Airbus in its early days used two Super Guppies. It was a running joke that Airbus components were being delivered on wings built by Boeing.
Knowing NASA...wonder how much each one cost.
Bdetter check your facts, Mr. Writer; that Super Guppy was built in the 1960's for the saturn V/ Apollo project by ....... good ol'd Boeing. It was based on a KC-97 fuselage, which itself dates back to the B-29 Stratofortress of WW II fame.
Airbus, my azz! That there is a 'Merican design!
Please see my reply above. I am checking my facts. :-)
A Stratofortress is a B-52. B-29 is a Superfortress. This Guppy was obviously converted from a Boeing C-97 & has Allison 501 turboprop engines like a C-130.
well rich the first superguppies were built in the US and the last two were built (or modified) by airbus
Had an amazing visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum annex The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia today.
WOW. From the Enola Gay to Discovery, our nation's rich aviation and space history, along with aircraft from other nations including an Air France Concorde, is beautifully presented.
An incredible day of national pride.
Once saw the Concorde fly over, en route to an airshow years ago. It was impressive, even from a distance.
I grew up in Orlando in the late 50's early 60's before they banned sonic booms. We kids thougth it was cool when the planes did that, we'd laugh.
Hmmm, is that Opra's personal aircraft? I heard she put on a few pounds, but geeeez.
It was reduced to a five passenger jet when Oprah rode on it.
ACtually "Super guppy" wasn't what the aircreft was originally called. In a Life Magazine photospread when the first one was built , it was called the "pregnant guppy"
Right, that's how the craft got its name ... cuz it looked like a pregnant guppy. ;-) The design was improved over the years, and that's why there were Guppies and Super Guppies.
Correct. I live about 10 miles from the NASA field in Houston, and often see a
"pregnant guppy"---it always looks odd. How many are they?
I believe the difference between the pregnant guppy and the super guppy was the engines. The later has turbo prop engines while the original had radial piston engines. After reading everyones comments, I would like to point out that everyone is half right and half, ummmm, mistaken. Just glad to see, though, so many people who are as anal as I am when it comes to classic aircraft.
dave, I think the original "pregnant guppies" were also not quite as wide as the "super guppy"
there was a pregnant guppy, mini guppy, and a super guppy, along with a super and mini guppy turbine
here's a link, "all about guppies"
http://www.allaboutguppys.com/
an interesting side note, the last superguppy built actually has a part of the first superguppy built in it.
a fuselage section that wasn't available by other means
second side note, Airbus decided that a "high volume transport airplane" was of sufficient utility that they then produced the "Beluga" transporter with twice the volume of the super guppy (also from my earlier link)
Trust you are a member of forum.keypublishing.co.uk Alan. They will certainly have all the facts & figures as opposed to the savants on this page.
Thanks for the article.
No, I haven't plugged into that forum, Blackbird. Thanks for the tip ... and for your thanks :-)
Airbus bought the rights to the Super Guppy design from Aero Space Lines and had two built in France. NASA's Super Guppy was purchased from Airbus in a barter deal for supporting a portion of the International Space Station project. This one's a frog.
That weird plane's been flying here in Houston ever since I moved here 7 years ago. I remember the first time I saw it. It was amazing to see it fly. and my dad worked in the aerospace industry. That's all.
Dan
dolphin....with wings!
It's based on the Boeing Stratocruiser or the C-97. I was lucky enough as a kid to tour one of the PAN AM planes when I was in elementary school,2nd or 3rd grade at LAX. They were the 747 of their day. Double deck and all!! I joined the USAF in 1962 and became a Recip Eng Mech. I worked on HC-54's and then we upgraded to the HC-97 for Air Sea Rescue(55th ARS). Loved the R-2000,BUT that R4360 was a LEAKING B!TCH. I mean you had to have an umbrella to walk under one of those monsters. Oil leaks every where!! But I loved working on that Ol' CORNCOB!!! If you are interested in Recip(PISTON)Engines Google R4360 Engine. There are still a few of them running. Some videos on UTUBE.
REAL AIRCRAFT HAVE ROUND ENGINES!!!
That same engine was used on the B-50 (upgraded B-29) and the B-36, which had six of them pointing backwards. 28 cylinders, 56 spark plugs - can you imagine having to change all 336 spark plugs on a B-36, outside in the cold? (The B-36 was too big to fit in a hangar - even bigger than the later B-52). Thank goodness for turboprops and jet engines.
The B-36 peacemaker was the "Big Stick".
It was also used on the C-124 "OL' Shakey".
I guess I'm just a science nerd or geek or whatever but I LOVE this stuff!
Beluga whale or bottlenose dolphin?
I used to watch the earlier "Pregnant Guppies" fly into the Long Beach, California airport since it wasn't far from the Rockwell plant in Downey. i saw them unload an Apollo command module one, although I couldn't be sure if it was a flight item or a mockup. It was encase in a steel covering and frame, all painted yellow. The original Guppies were essentially the same airframe but with the older radial engines. The Super Guppies have turboprop engines. Those days are long gone.
I just remembered. When I was in the 55th ARS we got 2 HH43B 'chopers. They were Turbo(Jet) powered. We got ONE Jet Engine Mech named Goodman. I was assigned to him and we were the Jet Engine Shop for the Squadron. He told me the difference between a Jet and a Recip engine.
A Recip goes Shake,Rattle and Roll. A Jet goes Suck,Squeeze,Bang- BLOW!!! Never forgot him or his saying. Great times to be an Aircraft Engine Mech in the USAF back in '62-'66
If I remember right the original Guppy had the R4360 engine. You will notice that the Super Guppy has Turbo Prop engines. That maybe the only difference between the two. Not sure. Could be that the 'Bubble Top' is bigger.
But everything on the airframe below the top of the blue line is the C-97 Stratocruiser.
All I've got to say is that huge though it may be, this aircraft is just plain cute! Paint a big old smile on it and it would be downright adorable!
It's always so much fun when more information is in the notes afterwards than in the article itself. (It's not just msnbc, but biographies and other histories that I've found this to be true.)
I am glad for the extra info, and for the different reports and views given, and that everyone stayed on topic, and the trolls stayed away.
Thank you, fellow commentators, for an enjoyable and informative read!
DITTO!!!!!!
That is one crazy airplane!
When I was stationed at MCRD San Diego in 1969 there was a Supper Guppy parked there at Lindbergh field.Right across the fence from the recruit depot.
Airbus Industries built the Beluga which is based upon the Airbus airframe (the A300-600) and is much larger than the Guppy which is built from the C97 Stratocruiser. Both are very impressive aircraft to see in flight and on the ground being loaded/unloaded.
An uplifting message TODAY from: Robert D. Cabana, Director, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral
Source: The Palm Beach Post, Saturday June 30
"NASA still going strong post-shuttle"
Fifty years after NASA established a spaceport to launch men to the mon and probes to explore our solar system, Kennedy Space Center's mission has not wavered. Our team is celebrating five decades of extraordinary accomplishments. We're also gearing up for a vibrant future of processing, testing and launching the most complex machines ever built.
The spaceport commenced on July 1, 1962, and became a national resource supporting a wide array of vehicles. During this decade, we're going back to those roots as we transition to the launch complex of the future. As President Kennendy stated when he challenged the country t send astronauts to the lunar surface, this business is hard. But this team was up to the challenge then and we will rise above it again as we reach even greater heights in the years ahead.
It was difficult to say farewell to our beloved space shuttles and the many folks who dedicated their lives to that phenomenal program. Now we undertake the newest human spaceflight program. In partnership with the Johnson Space Center in Houstoon, the Commercial Crew Program at Kennedy is spurring the innovation and development of commercial spacecraft and launch vehicles to transport our astronauts to and from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station.
We'll also be the starting point for NASA's Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, which will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Our Launch Services Program is gearing up for missions to study Mars, Pluto and our sun. We are busier than ever. Our lights are still on, our doors are still open and the list of extraordinary things we plan to accomplish in this life-time is long."
ROBERT D. CABANA, Director
Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral
(Had to share this day-brightener he just wrote immediately)
Isn't it depressing, Robert.
"People will pay more to be entertained than educated."
The late Johnny Carson
(And highest paid entertainer of his time.)
Yea its depressing that the shuttle was a total failure and none of the NASA directors had guts to tell it how it is. The congress obstruction and incompetence can be expected. The buck stopped at the highest position in NASA. It failed.
The money spent on keeping the failure going was essentially theft from real science.
The shuttle was suppose to bring down the cost of space travel. It did not. Its an unsafe piece of expensive junk with self fish people who didn't care.
This was not only a failure at the NASA it has set back space travel 30 years. We might even be surpassed by China because of this blunder.
Its a cruel world and coming second does not matter. The race continues.
This failure will continue to haunt the scientific community forever. Why? We spent 140 billion on the space shuttle and what happened to the real science?
I guess using photoshop to make pretty pictures to put on the NASA websites can make up for the 30 years of failure. We can leave the more important work to the chinese.
What did we miss out on because of the failed space shuttle.
This is what is totally possible. We could have cars right now that drive a million miles without going to the petrol station.
What? Yes Thorium based vehicles. It would be less polluting then oil and safe. But no we had to have the shuttle.
That is just one example of where research should of gone.
Mark my words the Chinese are working on this technology developed here in the usa and forgotten.