robkamm wrote:
thats pretty neat. I remember buiding monogram models of it as a kid. Wish i was there to see it. How much of the original c-97 is left in this conversion?
Depends on how you look at it.
(from
http://www.allaboutguppys.com)
Quote:
Aero Spacelines built an entirely new fuselage to connect the existing C-97 Stratocruiser parts. The only parts taken from the C-97s and used for this generation of Guppy, were the nose section with presurized cockpit, wings using the lower section of nacelles, tail surfaces and main landing gear. The nose wheel is from a Boeing 707, rotated 180 degrees. A 23 ft. center section was inserted into the wing to give additional clearance between the tips of the propellers and the fuselage side.
Quote:
All of the third generation of Guppys (Mini Turbine and Super Turbine) used the Allison T-56 (501-D22C) Turboprops rated at 4680 ESHP. Aero Spacelines took the turboprops, cowlings, from the Lockheed Electra/P-3 Orion but used the propellers and spinners from the C-130 Hercules. The P-3's propellers are built for speed, whereas the C-130's are built for load carrying. The upper nacelles were constructed using turboprops from the P-3, with the upper nacelles adapting the Lockheed cowls to the existing lower nacelles and landing gear housing. Note in the photo for scale reference, the top of the door leading to the cockpit is about 5 and a half feet up from the floor and also note the man standing on the ground. The highest point inside the fuselage is 25 ft.
N941NA is 377SGT-F c/n 004 (and thus was Airbus SuperGuppy #4). The "-F" denotes that the aircraft was assembled by Airbus in France from a kit provided by Aero Spacelines Inc. The aircraft aircraft is unique in that it uses the Section 46 (aft lower fuselage) of B377 c/n 15924 (NX1024V). This was the 3rd prototype Stratocruiser and was delivered to PanAm after testing. PanAm sold it to what became AeroSpacelines and then converted to the 377PG Pregnant Guppy (the first Guppy built and the one that hauled all the Saturn and Skylab parts for NASA back in the 1960's and 1970's). The aircraft was taken out of service a few years prior to the SGT program and thus was available to donate the required part (which needed to be from a B377 and not a C-97 due to structural differences). This was part of the reason that NASA selected this aircraft when they approached EADS to acquire one of them to replace the 377SG "Super Guppy" N940NA.
I have not been able to nail down via any online or offline sources which C-97(s) were used in the construction of c/n 004.
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