NASA Turns to AF for 'Guppy' Evaluation

[unhappycamper]

NASA Turns to AF for 'Guppy' Evaluation
April 24, 2008
Air Force Print News|by Danielle Gregory

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. - NASA officials brought the Super Guppy -- a uniquely-designed aircraft used to transport cargo, including parts of the space shuttle program -- to Tinker AFB in mid-April so that maintainers here could inspect the aircraft and perform some repairs.

According to NASA Chief Flight Engineer Henry Taylor, officials chose Tinker AFB because it has a great reputation for having lots of capabilities when it comes to doing significant maintenance.

"We wanted to go someplace where we could have the kind of expertise and support to support a one-of-a-kind airplane and Tinker has that," Mr. Taylor said.

Project planners here estimate it should take about 14,770 hours to inspect and fix the plane, which has never been fixed prior to this. That equates to an Aug. 22 goal of completing inspections and some repairs, with a drop dead date of Sept. 29, unless workers find something that requires extensive repairs.

Debra Bennett, lead Super Guppy project pre-planner, was part of a Tinker AFB contingent that visited NASA in February 2007 to discuss the Super Guppy.


Rest pf article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/air-force-news/nasa-turns-to-af-for-guppy-evaluation.html



uhc comment: Here's a pretty good picture -->

[Aviation Pro]

1. Here's the Airbus equivalent (except it's a turbojet)....

[Rick Myers]

2. At first, I thought that ws photoshopped!

Never seen that Airbus before!!!