FLYING Magazine
There’s sad news for Super Guppy fans. The unique, last-of-its-kind cargo hauler will not be able to appear at EAA AirVenture on July 20-26.
“The NASA Super Guppy was damaged in recent severe weather and will not be able to attend #OSH26,” the EAA said in a social media post. “A crew is working diligently to repair the damage, and we hope to see it back in Oshkosh soon!”
According to FlightAware, the last flight of N941NA was on May 27 when it traveled from Fairfield, California, to its home base at El Paso International Airport (KELP) in Texas.
- READ MORE: NASA’s Super Guppy Makes Ferry Flight
- READ MORE: Inside NASA’s Super Guppy
The details of the damage to the Super Guppy were not revealed by EAA and FLYING’s attempt to reach NASA was not successful.
The Super Guppy was designed in the 1960s specifically to carry oversized loads, such as the body sections of the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket. The design evolved from the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and the KC-97 Stratotanker, and a view of the cockpit drives this home as the control yoke and rudder pedals are decidedly Boeing.
The aircraft requires two pilots and a flight engineer. According to the pilots, this is an airplane that you fly all the way to the ground, especially in the wind, as its height gives it a crosswind tolerance of approximately 20 knots. The aircraft’s sheer size means there is a bit of a lag between the application of a control input and the desired result, so the pilots have to be patient.
The nose of the aircraft opens on a hinge. A 10-watt electric motor does the work, and it takes 30-40 minutes for it to open and close.