super guppy?

[CAPFlyer]

The SGT was based at Ellington. The move to San Antonio (along with several other NASA aircraft) was precipitated (quite literally) by Ike.

[Simon Beck]

Simon, the Guppies were converted by Aero Spacelines under the direction of Jack Conroy, not On Mark.

I thought Aero Spacelines was the TC holder but On Mark
did the actual mods.
The source I had must have been wrong, it was a book
"Boeing Aircraft Since 19??", popular title.

[The Inspector]

Conroy did this very difficult task in a rather clever and cool way. He cut the skin out right next to each frame, added the splice stubs then the rest of each frame hoop. spaced them out and added the stringers, tied it all together and sheeted the structure like sheeting a sub roof from the bottom to the top. When all that was done they went inside, cut out the old cabin structures with a power saw and tossed the old airplane out the door.
The feds made him commit to memory every school, hospital, and public gathering place along his takeoff route before they would allow him to attempt to fly the aircraft.
I just wish he'd have been able to build the outsized B-52 he drew up as well as the monster that would have used 2 STRATOCRUISER fuselages as sort of pylons/engine pods slung under an enormous wing and huge fuselage.

[lestweforget]

There is good information on the Guppy and the CL-44 (among others) on this site although I don't know how current it is http://www.oldprops.ukhome.net/contents.htm

[Mike Bates]

Here's a few old pic's from the 80's.







Mike

[Ztex]

I'm sticking to my El Paso thought...

I can't find anything on NASA's sites other than they say it a JSC aircraft based at Ellington. I found one 1990's copy of a JSC newsletter saying it is based in El Paso.

After a search I found this info from the El Paso Airport folks...they say it's based there.

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/news/_docume ... 8R-26L.pdf

[CAPFlyer]

FlightAware seems to show that the Guppy is still based at Ellington -

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA941/history

Although, it's currently in Philadelphia for something.

[Ztex]

I saw that too...I seem to remember RickH saying something about it one time..

Looking at Flight Aware; I was surprised how much flying it has been doing lately. Wonder how many hours they put on it every year?

[CAPFlyer]

That's a good question as far as total hours of flying a year. The page I posted shows the last 30 days of operations, so I imagine the recent flying is currency flying to get the plane and crew ready to go since it came out of maintenance at Tinker.

[RickH]

"Based" in El Paso but they are at EFD a bunch and they were flying crew requals just the other day.

NASA 940 at Pima is different than the others. She was built out of the YC-97 turboprop conversion done when they were thinking about converting the C-97 fleet. NASA withdrew her because the engines and props are C-133. When they became hard to support, NASA sent it to AMARC.

The current Guppy is the last one flying and it came from Airbus. It was their #4.

[kingofthezing]

N941NA does visit PHL a couple times a year...

[BattleRabbit]

I just wish he'd have been able to build the outsized B-52 he drew up as well as the monster that would have used 2 STRATOCRUISER fuselages as sort of pylons/engine pods slung under an enormous wing and huge fuselage.

Any more information on these beasts?