Category: History Publisher: McFarland & Company
ISBN-10: 1476665036
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 304
Copyright: 2018
ISBN-13: 9781476665030
A chronological accounting of Expanded fuselage aircraft and how they evolved to transport outsize cargo. The emphasis is on the development of Aero Spacelines Guppy Aircraft used to transport rocket boosters for NASA.
The story begins with the military need for logistical transport during World War II. The post war Convair XC-99 is technically the first expanded fuselage aircraft produced by using the airframe components of other aircraft. Douglas produced the C-124 from the C-74 and Boeing produced C-97 and commercial B-377 from the B-29.
The focus is the revolutionay change in cargo aircraft which took place in 1962 when John M. "Jack" Conroy defied conventional thinking when he formed Aero Spacelines to develope the B-377 "Pregnant Guppy. Conroy expanded the fuselage of a Boeing B-377 to enormous proportions with his "Frankeplane" approach of using parts from multiple existing aircraft to reduce development cost.
His Guppy aircraft were eagerly accepted by Wernher von Braun to solve NASA's logistical problems of transporting rocket boosters for the Apollo program. It was not believed possible an aircraft could be built with an interior the size of a gymnasium which would fly.
Conroy designs changed transport aircraft forever and set the standard for all large aircraft today. This accounting is woven with documented accounts and anecdotal stories which include aviation legends as well as some nefarious characters intent on profiting from obtaining large aircraft for questionable purposes.
A second volume "Ultra-Large Aircraft 1970-2020, The Development of Hybrid and External Cargo Transports" is now being researched and written as a follow-up.
Very interesting. While I am aware of large jet aircraft produced in Europe and by the Russians, I've not heard of these large transports. I always wondered how the 747 was able to carry the space shuttle on its back so easily. That combination certainly didn't look very aerodynamic.
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