Super Guppy: NASA's new wonder plane

Pregnant Guppy helped achieve President Kennedy's goal of getting to the moon by the end of the 1960s. Without Pregnant Guppy, the only other way to get the Apollo rocket stages from California to Florida was on a slow boat through the Panama Canal.

The Pregnant Guppy was so successful that ASI built a second larger Guppy for larger, heavier loads. There have been five Super Guppies built today, helping move spacecraft parts and fuel to vital locations.

Nasa describes the craft, which looks like it shouldn’t be able to fly, as ‘an innovative composite rocket fuel tank.’ Equipment and fuel is loaded and unloaded via a hinged nose at the front of the huge plane.