Last weekend at the Wings Over Houston airshow, NASA had their 377SG Super Guppy out on display (5 were made, this is the only one still flying). As a kid, I saw parts of the Apollo delivered in a Guppy so have fond memories of this bizarre looking aircraft. So with it parked literally right in front of the Texas Flying Legends hangar, I was transfixed by it. During the evening when the crowds were gone, I’d sit in the chair in front of the hangar with the D750 / 80-400 and just watch the setting sun in its huge reflection. I sat there and dreamt up photo ideas of aircraft I could stage and photograph in that huge reflection. It was great way to see the end of the day.
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Then came Monday morning and the airport was closed to the crowds and the airshow was nearly all tucked away until next year’s airshow. Jake and I greeted the morning on the ramp shooting statics with some great skies. We’d no sooner stopped and noticed our good friend Doug (in the Guppy left seat) was walking into the Guppy! Well Jake, Sharon & I beelined for that open door, stuck our head inside just in time to be invited in for the private tour! Oh man, what a great hour! I had grabbed the Df / 16Fish as I knew I would be shooting high ISO (handholding) and WIDE!!! For those who don’t know what this plane is all about, it flies “large” components around the globe. For example, the telescope portion of NASA’s Sophia fuselage was flown inside the Guppy. That’s a 747 folks! The bottom of the cargo floor inside is 13′ above the ground and it goes up 25.5′ from there. It’s a lot of plane and it was simply a great time in a very cool piece of our aviation heritage. I shot LOTS more then you see here, but hopefully gives you an idea of this cool aircraft. Thanks NASA for the tour, a boyhood dream come true!