On 5 Dec 2006 16:14:36 -0800, "Ad absurdum per aspera"
wrote:


I suspect that what he saw was a combination of wry humor and a chunk of the
fuselage of one of those a/c specially rebuilt to haul "Wide Loads" on its
way from the boneyard to scrap, Tucson being the site of the US's largest
boneyard. There's one model built on the "chassis" of the old Boeing
Stratocruiser/C-97 which has an enormous diameter.

Those "Pregnant Guppy" type of planes have been around a while,
actually. The need originated with the space program, which had to
transport bulky (up to 20 foot diam.), albeit not proportionately
heavy, objects without either the delays of sea cargo or the need to
close roads and find a way around every low bridge and power line
between the manufacturers' sites and vehicle assembly -- especially
problematic in when the Interstate highway system was still young and
partial.

There's a Super Guppy on static display at the Pima Air and Space
Museum here in Tucson off I-10 on the south edge of Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base and the "Boneyard",
http://www.sarimage.com/Aviation/DavisMonthan/ .

It's grotesquely monstrous.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *