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On the 16th of July 1969, the Saturn 5 rocket left Earth -
taking the Apollo 11 crew to the Moon.
This enormous rocket was key to achieving President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man
on the Moon by the end of the decade.
But without the help from an incredibly unique aircraft, the Apollo program’s golden moment
might not have happened in time.
The aircraft in question was called Guppy.
In the early 60’s, NASA were working on the Gemini Project - a series of crewed spaceflight
missions which would demonstrate the technologies needed to go to the Moon.
As the decade went on, NASA found themselves working on much larger rockets.
With the designs for the massive Saturn 5 rocket taking shape, it was clear that transporting
these giant rocket parts to the launch site was going to be an enormous challenge.
Although the Saturn 5 launched from Florida, many sections of the rocket were made by different
companies across the United States.
Each stage was too large to be transported by truck or train - so the only option was
to send them on a barge.
For some stages, this involved a 20 day journey around Mexico via the Panama Canal - not ideal
for a program that was already under immense time pressure.
At the same time, US airlines were replacing their Boeing 377 Stratocruisers with more
modern jet-engined airliners.
Ex-airforce pilot John Conroy was aware of NASA’s transportation problems and saw this
as an opportunity.
He bought two Stratocruisers from an aircraft broker and began converting them with his
new company Aero Spacelines.
They began by cutting one of the stratocruisers in half and inserting a section from the other
stratocruiser to lengthen the vehicle by 5 meters.
Then, to increase the size of the cargo bay, they built a new fuselage on top of the aircraft
with a massive 6 meter diameter.
Despite the new fuselage, Guppy only weighed 1.3 tonnes more than the original plane it
was made from.
However, the enormous new shape caused a significant amount of drag and the aircraft could only
fly at a cruising speed of 360km/h.
NASA were very doubtful that the plane could even leave the ground - let alone carry their
enormous rocket parts across the country.
So, Conroy flew Guppy to NASA’s spaceflight center in Houston to give them a demonstration.
After showing the plane’s ability to fly safely, NASA were impressed and immediately
began putting Guppy to work.
The aircraft began transporting components for the Gemini program, cutting a 20 day journey
down to just 18 hours.
As the Apollo program began to develop, NASA was under a lot of pressure to assemble and
launch the first Saturn 5 rocket - but Guppy’s flaws were starting to show.
In order to load cargo into the plane, the entire rear section of the aircraft had to
be unbolted and wheeled away.
The cargo bay wasn’t pressurized, meaning certain payloads couldn’t fly on the aircraft
due to the change in pressure during flight.
But when it came time to assemble the gigantic Saturn 5, Guppy wasn’t big enough to carry
the massive 3rd stage, which was urgently needed for the first flight test.
NASA went back to Conroy and asked his company to make a new aircraft.
And so they made - Super Guppy.
This time, the aircraft was built using a military Stratocruiser which was lengthened
by an extra 10 metres.
The new fuselage had a diameter of 7.6 meters, much wider than the previous version.
The new cargo bay was also fully pressurized, allowing more payloads to be transported.
This larger version of the aircraft was now capable of carrying sections of the Saturn
5 rocket, including the 3rd stage and the all important instrument unit.
The first Saturn 5 launch was scheduled for 1967 and despite some stages being a year
behind schedule, Super Guppy delivered many of its payloads a year earlier than those
traveling by barge.
In November of 1967, the first ever Saturn 5 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center,
less than two years before Apollo 11 would land on the Moon.
Over the next few years, Guppy flew over a million kilometers - carrying enormous sections
of delicate rocketry for the Gemini and Apollo programs.
Without Guppy, transporting and assembling the Saturn 5 rocket would have put NASA months
- perhaps years behind schedule.
In a program which had suffered major delays, Apollo 11 achieved Kennedy’s goal with just
5 months to spare.
Over the next couple of years, multiple variations of Guppy were produced to handle NASA’s
transportation needs.
This fleet continued to support NASA during the Skylab program in the 70’s and the
International Space Station program in the late 90’s.
Despite being an aircraft from the 60’s, NASA still uses Guppy today to transport its
largest components.
After playing a role in one of humanity's greatest achievements, Guppy went on to inspire
a new breed of aircraft like the Airbus Beluga which can carry entire aircraft fuselages
in its cargo bay.
Although many cargo planes have surpassed Guppy in terms of capability, it will always
be remembered as the aircraft that saved the Apollo program.
Its distinctive design came at a time when engineers were pushing the limits of their
imaginations in order to achieve a seemingly impossible goal.
I recently collaborated with Astrum on a video about the largest storms in our solar system.
Be sure to check out that video and the rest of their videos for more awesome space related content.
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