Thursday, January 26, 2012

Super Guppy visits Amarillo one last time ...






Photos by Steve Douglass

If you were out by Rick Husband/Amarillo International Airport yesterdau - you may have witnessed a strange looking whale of an aircraft landing - Nasa's "Super Guppy."

The unique one of a kind aircraft was making it's last delivery of a V-22 Osprey fuselage to the Amarillo Bell/Textron plant.

This Super Guppy is the latest and last of a long line of Guppy cargo aircraft used by NASA.

Guppy aircraft were used in several past space programs, including Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab, to transport spacecraft components. The first Guppy aircraft was developed in 1962, designed specifically for NASA operations by Aero Spacelines of California.

This was the last trip of the Super Guppy to Amarillo - it will be retired soon. From this point onward V-22 fuselages will be transported by trucks which may be slower but are more fuel efficient.

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