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 Thank you very much for watching and I’ll
see you in the next video.
