Long ago the Museum’s Mini-Guppy looked much different (and was a lot smaller!) In fact, its first incarnation is all but unrecognizable to us today. This life began with humble origins, the Mini-Guppy being born as a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (Boeing’s first post WW ll commercial aircraft) that was delivered to Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) on September 8, 1949. The airplane would see commercial service until 1960 when it was officially placed out of service and traded back to Boeing.

With Pan Am’s retirement of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser used to build the Museum’s Mini-Guppy in 1960, the aircraft was traded back to Boeing and purchased by Aero-Spacelines Inc.  of Santa Barbara, California in 1963.  Construction of the Mini-Guppy began in December 1966, taking less than seven months to complete the dramatic conversion from a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser into the world’s first, and only, “Mini-Guppy.” The airplane was christened the “Spirit of Santa Barbara” and made its first flight on May 24, 1967. Just two days later, the Mini-Guppy carried showed off its lifting capacity by carrying a Budd Company Skylounge (rail car) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a Paris, France airshow.

With Aero-Spacelines’ “Pregnant Guppy” and “Super Guppy” aircraft making history by helping NASA put a man on the moon in 1969, it was the Mini-Guppy’s turn to shine. Notable cargo carried by the Mini-Guppy include a Boeing 707 aircraft nose, flown by the Mini-Guppy from Seattle, Washington to Damascus, Syria to fix another 707 that had been hijacked by a group of Palestinians who were flying aboard TWA flight 840 in August of 1969, and who detonated a bomb in the nose of the aircraft, destroying it. In addition, the Mini-Guppy carried the “Europa,” an airship built by Goodyear and operated in Europe as a public relations platform. And one can’t forget the Mini-Guppy carrying NASA’s famed Pioneer 10 spacecraft, the first man-made craft to travel through the Asteroid Belt and explore Jupiter. In these early years in the life of the Mini-Guppy, the airplane performed, and performed well, carrying a variety of goods that couldn’t otherwise be moved, at least not without great difficulty anyway. Through it all, the Mini-Guppy would prove its worth several times over, almost no job too great for her to handle.


 SPECIFICATIONS

 

Type                                                  Cargo Aircraft

Weight                                               132,150 lbs. empty

Wingspan                                        156 ft. 3 in.

Length                                              132 ft. 10 in.

Height                                               26 ft. 6 in.

Inside Diameter                            18 ft. 2 in.

Power                                               Four Pratt & Whitney 4360

                                                           Wasp Major radial engines

Manufacturer                                 Aero-Spacelines Inc.

 

 PERFORMANCE


Cruising speed                                 240 mph

Rate of climb                                    600 ft/min

Range                                                  2,500 miles

Service ceiling                                 18,000 ft.

Payload                                              40,000 lbs.