View From The Porch: Today In History: Flying abomination.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Today In History: Flying abomination.

On this day in 1965, mothers turned their children's eyes from the sky as the first Super Guppy waddled aloft.

16 comments:

Don said...: That is freakin' adorable.; 8:09 AM, August 31, 2007
phlegmfatale said...: it's so keeeeewwwt!
I want one!
I will love him and pet him and call him George.; 9:37 AM, August 31, 2007
Cybrludite said...: Oh, that just ain't right! Looks like something some rich Hollyweird asshole would pimp out to fly around & tell us peons about how we need to live a 10th Century lifestyle to stop Global Warming.; 9:40 AM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: 150,000 rivits flying in formation.; 10:23 AM, August 31, 2007
NotClauswitz said...: I guess the name "Super Mahi-Mahi" was ignored...; 2:22 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Every time I see an H&K P7M10 I think Super Guppy. Kind of looks the same to me.

They were impressive planes to see in the air.; 2:29 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Wow Tamara,

I'm impressed that you know about something as obscure as a SG.

Bravo!; 2:31 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: There's still a Super Guppie sitting on display at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson.; 2:36 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Heh, I am about 300 yards away from the only one left flying!! Truly a sight to behold on a bright clear sunny day, thats a whole lot of polished aluminum going on right there.; 3:00 PM, August 31, 2007
Matt G said...: Interestingly, only 31 days earlier, the less-impressively-ugly but much more ginormous (in capacity) C-5 Galaxy took its maiden flight.

Interesting factoid: the C-5 has more unusable space in the tail behind its rear ramp than the C-130 Hercules (our basic military cargo workhorse) has in its entire available cargo area.; 5:30 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Meh, that bird has been in and out of here more times than I care to recall flying NASA and MICOM hardware.
It sure did look buttugly and aerodynamically weird but it did the job well.; 5:51 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Yea matt g, but that old C-130 is still the most modified-most variant cargo aircraft in the Air Force inventory. Granted, the C-5 flies a helluvalot smoother.; 11:58 PM, August 31, 2007
Anonymous said...: Well that Super Guppy just reminds me that I'm one year older and working hard not to become similarly shaped.

Still I think it's pretty damn cool.; 2:20 AM, September 01, 2007
Anonymous said...: Tam, that's only one of the freaky giant transport planes - you missed airbus's freaky Supertransporter(based on the A300), and Boeings new Large Cargo Freighter(based on the 747).

Both are at least as odd looking as the Guppys, and unlike the Guppys, both are active use planes.; 4:49 AM, September 01, 2007
Tam said...: I didn't miss them, it's just that yesterday wasn't the anniversary of their first flight.

Plus, they are only following an ugly trail blazed by the Guppies. ;); 8:22 AM, September 01, 2007
Oran Woody said...: In 1968, I was worked at a flight school at the Santa Barbara Airport. It was located across the field from Conroy Aviation. Once, when the Super Guppy had been shooting touch and goes, going round and round, for several days, I noticed that it appeared to be getting awfully close to the runway with its wheels still up. It touched down and slid slowly to a stop.
Six months later, I was flying from Midland, Texas back to Santa Barbara with Jack Conroy (the owner of the Super Guppy) and mentioned the accident to him.
He said that it hadn't been an accident to him.
The FAA had been flying around testing everything that they could think of so that each of the local boys could get some flight time in the Guppy. All of it on his dime. He was sitting in the jump seat and noticed that the pilot and co-pilot had failed to put the gear down. He decided that he could repair the damage from a wheels up landing more cheaply than he could let them keep flying for who knew how long.
He then just let them put it down on the pavement and considered the testing by the FAA as finally being complete.
Woody; 1:24 PM, September 02, 2007