The most known among the cargo aircraft is probably the French Airbus A300-600ST Beluga, but today we will go back to the past to learn about the ancestors of all aircraft. superhuman transport.
In the 1960s, US space programs were heavily invested and needed a new transport aircraft capable of carrying things - not super-heavy but bulky in size.
The aviator and aerospace engineer John Conroy proposed an extremely bold idea: to transform the "Boeing" fuselage to increase the volume of the cabin, but to limit the gas characteristics. The kinematics of the aircraft are minimal.
And he relies on the pregnant guppy to design a plane with the name "Pregnant Guppy". Guppies are one of the most popular freshwater ornamental fish in the world. This fish is easy to breed, reproduce fast, diverse and rich in color among the ornamental fish.
When the concept was approved by NASA, Conroy pledged his home to fund Aero Spacelines. Along with On Mark Engineering, Conroy's company made the "rip off" of the Boeing 377 to launch the "flying babies" Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy. On September 19, 1962, Conroy personally took his work off the air for the first time.Up until the late 1970s, the "Pregnant Guppy" was dedicated to NASA, which transported parts of the spacecraft, in which the largest cargo was one of the strata of the Saturn I " In 1979, the first "golfer" craft built on the basis of the older "Boeing" was completely exhausted and then scrapped into scrap metal.
In addition to "Pregnant Guppy", Conroy's company built three more Aero Spacelines Super Guppy (making its first flight in 1965), Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy (1967) and Conroy Skymonster (1969)
The special design of this "Guppy" was developed by French engineers and used to make "Airbus A300-600ST Beluga" (1994) and Boeing 747 Dreamlifter (2006) aircraft. .
Here are some key specifications of the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy:
Crew: 3 people
Length: 38.71 m
Wingspan: 43.05 m
Maximum takeoff weight: 63,945 kg
Engine: 4 Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major
Maximum speed: 515 km / h
Travel speed: 235 km / h
