Flying Fish

I had a great opportunity to go out to Ellington Field (EFD) yesterday and photograph NASA 941 – the Super-Guppy. The Guppy is currently being used to transport a portion of the Space Shuttle (plywood) mockup to the Seattle Museum of Flight. The Space Shuttle Crew Compartment “segment” was loaded last week and the Guppy crew wanted to perform a quick test flight before departing for Seattle tomorrow.

They took off from EFD-35L, made a right turn, flew to Galveston, and then returned to EFD – about 30 minutes total flight time. The only issue encountered was a (small) bird strike up on the “forehead” of the Guppy – the crew reported hearing a “thump,” and we could see the smudge when she taxied back to the NASA ramp.

So "heads up" to any POTN-Seattle members, the Super Guppy is headed your way, and according to the Museum of Flight website, the delivery is open to the public!
http://www.museumoffli​ght.org …huttle-trainer-crew-cabin

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Part 2
Many years ago, I remember attending a presentation speech by NASA Test Pilot Joe Algranti where he spoke about his experiences flying the Super-Guppy. I remember him telling us that the Super-Guppy is the only airplane in the world that “normally” lands nose wheel first. He also told us that during take-off, the main gear lifts off the runway before the nose wheel. I saw both of these events happen today. I was able to photograph the nosewheel landing but didn’t capture the main gear during take-off. I'm going out to EFD tomorrow to try again!

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Are there no more tail draggers anymore? Or does it not count when there are two wheels up front?

In my aviation parlance, a Taildragger has two main gear and a tail wheel. A Tricycle gear aircraft has two main gear and a nose wheel. Of course, there are "other" aircraft designed with centerline landing gear such as the B-52 and the U-2. The X-15 used landing skids in the rear, etc. -- I'm sure we can all think of many other variations.

I certainly don't mean to start an argument here -- I was simply quoting what I heard from a respected NASA Test Pilot with many hours in the cockpit of this aircraft. The point being that the Super Guppy has very unique center of lift and center of mass attributes which impact the flying characteristics in off-nominal ways. (I hope that all makes sense.)

Good work, great to see the old girl still active.

Phil

nice shots, what an odd looking thing.

Cool shots, thanks for sharing. I have a feeling some B-52 drivers would argue Mr Algranti's observation on the nose gear touching first and the mains lifting first.

Go4EVA! wrote in post #14635756
In my aviation parlance, a Taildragger has two main gear and a tail wheel. A Tricycle gear aircraft has two main gear and a nose wheel. Of course, there are "other" aircraft designed with centerline landing gear such as the B-52 and the U-2. The X-15 used landing skids in the rear, etc. -- I'm sure we can all think of many other variations.

I certainly don't mean to start an argument here -- I was simply quoting what I heard from a respected NASA Test Pilot with many hours in the cockpit of this aircraft. The point being that the Super Guppy has very unique center of lift and center of mass attributes which impact the flying characteristics in off-nominal ways. (I hope that all makes sense.)

It does. And that is a funny looking plane.

The BUFF definitely "rotates" at a negative deck angle... Pretty impressive to see.

Saw FiFi wheelbarrow it onto the active at Deer Valley, AZ a couple years ago. Pretty sure that wasn't normal!

jwol wrote in post #14636093
Cool shots, thanks for sharing. I have a feeling some B-52 drivers would argue Mr Algranti's observation on the nose gear touching first and the mains lifting first.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #14636136
The BUFF definitely "rotates" at a negative deck angle... Pretty impressive to see.

Copy all guys! I really wasn't trying to start something.
I was just excited to capture the shot with the nose gear tire smoke while the mains were still in the air.

So is this a plane or blimp? JK awesome and thanks for posting this

I've *never* seen a nose wheel landing before! (Well, I almost made one as a student, but. . .) Great work -- fascinating airplane.

Interesting find!

sigma pi wrote in post #14637084
So is this a plane or blimp? JK awesome and thanks for posting this

That thing is just wrong!

Very cool. Looks to be a modified C130?

Great shots of a very strange looking plane. Easy to see where it got it's nick name.