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I live near an Airbus site and regularly get to see the Belugas. It's great to spot one.

I'm amazed at how there really is a lineage between the Guppies and the Belugas -- and in an ironic way how Boeing helped Airbus succeed!

In the late 1960s my dad (a draftsman) worked on the Super Guppy for Aero Spacelines in Santa Barbara, California. We attended the rollout ceremony for a newly-built Super Guppy. I was 9 or 10, and have never forgotten the excitement at the ceremony or how proud my dad was to have been part of the project. I've already sent the link for this video to my sisters. One is old enough to remember the event, for the other two this will be glimpse into a part of my dad's life they didn't know about.

I live in Houston, Texas and have seen the super guppy on final into Ellington Field several times and each time I’m reminded of the Douglas Adams quote: “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”

I knew about the Guppy and Super Guppy, but not it's fantastic history. Thanks for the video Petter!

When Mentour Pilot and Mentour Now both upload, it’s a good weekend

9:55 Honestly Clay Lacy deserves a video just on him given his honestly crazy career (he’s still alive btw). Filmed the XB-70 crash, 29 world speed records, flew a group of students around the world on a dc-8, around the world speed record (just over 36 hours) with a Boeing SP (Neil Armstrong was aboard), technically time traveled, flew a dc-7 in a pylon air race (6th out of 20th), helped develop Aerial cinematography and more! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Lacy

There is one preserved in Toulouse, just outside the airbus facilities. The hinging front door / cockpit was also a problem during windy days. At (at least) one point the hinge broke from a gust of wind. They fixed the plane but never reinforced the mechanism: the hinge was used as a fuse not to break or bend the main structure of the fuselage if extreme forces were to be applied

It's so great one of the Guppys is still flying. And for NASA no less.

My Dad was a truck driver most of my life. Back in the late 60s he used to haul Rocketdyne J-2 engines used on the upper stages of the Saturn V. The J-2s were just small enough to be hauled by truck. The 1st stage F-1s had to go by barge or Guppy.

"every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing”

The day is great when a new mentour video comes out!

I love the passion you have for aviation, and for sharing your knowledge with all of us. It’s awesome when you love your work.

My Parents flew to Nigeria for years in the Stratocruiser, operated by BOAC. Downstairs bar and freedom to wander about... how cool is that?

Thanks for labouring on two great episodes for us this weekend Mentour Pilot/Now! Really enjoyed the Tulsa landing recap and the Super Guppy tales! It’s been a whale of a great set of stories!

As a space nerd who's going to school for A&P license right now, the Guppy holds a special place in my heart! Fantastic video, loving the classic aircraft series

I've had the pleasure of seeing the 4th Super Guppy fly and land at the Mesa Gateway airport here in AZ. Quite surreal to see something like that in the air!

It is amazing how aviation evolved from the wright's brothers plane to WWI biplanes to huge piston engine planes and turboprops to finaly the planes we fly and love. Love the concept of reviewing a few commercial planes that marked history. Really makes me wonder what we will develope in the future.

There is one at Toulouse. You can actually go insinde and I recommend the visit of the museum where you can also see two concorde

Boeing used to needle Airbus by saying, “Every Airbus was delivered on the wings of a Boeing.”

The Guppy used to fly from Long Beach, California quite frequently and passed right over my house. I saw it many times and thought it was the most bizarre plane I'd ever seen! LOL. With Douglas Aircraft Co. based in Long Beach, I saw plenty of flights of Douglas aircraft being tested and flown, along with scheduled airline flights like PSA, Western and others.

When I travelled to the US in 2022 I went inside a superguppy and it was all so exciting. Nice to learn more about the Supper guppy and the stratocrusier. It’s a rather unique aircraft.

I had no idea how essential the Guppies were to NASA. I'll have to ask my grandfather about this!

One of the strangest and most fascinating planes ever built!!!

This is by far one of my favorite mentor (now or pilot) videos. Please keep them coming!

19:30 hey wow, an amiga 1000. i had one of those, back in the 80s. yes, i'm old :-(

I was thrilled to see this video. Was stationed at Mather AFB in Sacramento, CA, for navigator training in 1965 and 1966. I can remember seeing the Pregnant Guppy flying nearby, possibly coming into or out of JPL. 9:55

Dad knew one of the flight test engineers who was killed in the crash of the Mini Guppy. The thing became unstable and went into a roll on takeoff. I don't know the reason. I would guess that low airspeed was involved.

I like how aircraft is like puzzle ... getting all the parts from different aircraft XD

i used to live about 2 miles from Nasa in Clear Lake TX and we used to see the guppy flying at times landing at Ellington Field. i remember the first time i saw it and did a double take and thought , “What the hell is that!” after finding out i looked up all the documentaries on this funny little plane and enjoyed watching it for years until i moved out of Houston. it really stands out while flying!

If there's one thing I miss about living in Houston, it was seeing the guppy fly numerous times in and out of KEFD. Well that, and all the other cool NASA stuff

The Super Guppy 4 sounds like the Airplane of Theseus

Mentour Pilot and Mentour now are goats

I first saw a picture of a Guppy in a book about different airplanes. This was about 1974-75 when I was 9-10. I remember thinking that it was a really strange airplane. We lived on the island of Guam at the time, and our house was on a hill very close to the approach to GUM, Guam International Airport. One day I heard an airplane, I looked up and there was a Guppy coming in for a landing. It was very strange to see an airplane, which seemed to have miniature wings, able to fly. I don't know if it was a Guppy or Super Guppy, I was just excited to see it. Thanks for the history of it.

I always enjoy hearing about these planes. Great video.

You can see a Super-Guppy at the Aeroscopia museum in Toulouse, France next to the Airbus factory, you need at least half a day to visit the museum and if the factory is open to visitors, I'd say you'd need another half to visit it. We only had 2 hours to visit the Aeroscopia museum where we also saw a Concorde and an A380.

I went to Oshkosh to attend AirVenture 2023 end of July and there’s a super Guppy showed up in that big square right there. That one must be the fourth one still flying you said so. There’s a lead engineer also told me there’re four of them. He looks like Maxican by the way🤔, should be Maxican American. That Super Guppy also flew up around Wittman airport afterwards, and I took some shots. Thanks Petter for more stories about these Super Guppy.

I've been in the mini-guppy, it's currently on display at the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook Oregon. That museum is the site of an old US Navy blimp patrol station and hangar.

Petter, thank you! I've always loved these aircraft, but hadn't heard their full history. Everytime I see one, I smile as widely as does Airbus' Beluga XL!

I can almost park my car next to it at the El Paso International Airport but I've only seen it flying around the city a couple times.

Before the Belugas, the old joke was that 'every Airbus flew it's first flight on Boeing wings', as the fuselage and wing assemblies were flown to the factory in Toulouse/Hamburg for final assembly using Boeing Stratocruiser-based Super-Guppy turbines. The passenger Stratocruiser version had to be used as the basis, because the Stratofreighter (KC-97 Military Version) had a rear cargo door cut out, and as a result had insufficient strength to support the required Guppy structural modifications.

Good grief what a superb video - awesome - thanks to all who helped put this together

Was a fan of the Guppy as a young fella in the mid 70s. A few aircraft library books had a right side view of this aircraft. Looks so graceful despite its massive size

i don't work in the aviation industry, i don't even fly that much but i loooove nerding about planes on this channel

It's impressive that this was a b-29 derivative and flought productively to our days. The b-29 spawn a suprising variety of aircraft. Its offsprings even include a chinese AWACS (KJ-1)

Its such a shame the one that was at bruntingtorpe England was broken up and only the cockpit survived. I remember being amazed by it as a kid and climbing on board.

Now Boeing operates "guppied" 747s to transport 787 parts worldwide. The 747LCF dreamlifter.

Excellent, and rivetting, story, Petter. I really enjoyed that, and some connection to family history, too!

Wow. I’m extremely happy you have finally made a mini documentary about it. I have the 1st Super Guppy Turbine (SGT1 for Airbus) in my local aviation museum in Wales. I have been in her over 35 times now and I always discover something new. The second one in Aeroscopia is a perfect condition one and felt like a time capsule! Truly an outstanding aircraft and I’m so glad to see someone’s made a video on it!

IIRC, from a documentary I once saw, part of the impetus for the development of the Beluga was an ad bragging that "Every Airbus takes its first flight on a Boeing."

I have been a big fan of the Super Guppy and Airbus Beluga for quite a while now. I even have a model of the 2nd Beluga XL sitting on my flight simulator. But thanks to you, I have even more respect for the two fleets.

4:56 That overlay is hilarious. Eek-eek EEEEEK!

The last superguppy's registration, N941NA is a 2001 reference; the dimensions of the Monolith are 9-4-1 (the squares of 3, 2, 1).

When I saw the photo of that Erickson Air Crane plane, it occurred to me that you might want to someday go off on a tangent, and investigate that company's operations. Not only did they use their helicopters for cranes in very specialized jobs, but they also used those helicopters for precision logging. They used to be a customer of mine. It was an impressive operation to see in full swing.

Would love a deep dive on Jack Conroy

This is so fascinating. Besides for the still operational guppy including a major component that flew parts for previous space programs, that part has got to be at least close to 70 years old.

I worked and lived in Charleston county, SC for seven years. The plant that builds the 787 dream liners in located there. I never got tired of seeing the Dreamlifter flying in an out of the adjacent airport. Kind of a spiritual successor I feel.

When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, Van Nuys National guard and airport was just south of us, and were under the landing path for anything that landed there. In addition to all the cool military planes we saw, the Guppy would fly over us at times. It was an incredable thing to see.

Was fun to see them flying over Santa Barbara back in the day.

Absolutely love aviation 👍🙏

It’s great to see and learn the history of the Super Guppy that we see fly around Kennedy Space Center. Keep up the amazing work!

Once again you came through with an awesome video

Aside from the Super Guppy, the Antonov with 6 engines and the 747 with the space shuttle attached are the weirdest planes I’ve ever seen in person.

Hell of a story. Takk så mycket Petter.😊😊😊

Thanks Petter. Nothing like a bit of aviation history to understand how we got to where we are now.

If you’re ever near Tucson, Arizona, USA; head over to the boneyard to see a Guppy. Pima Air & Space Museum

Another fascinating story and epic story telling. Thanks!

"All of this happened before his 24th birthday" ... 😐

We had a house near Ellington Field in Houston when I was a kid. I remember seeing the Super Guppy flew over the house on several occasions!

The nasa guppy is serviced regularly at an airport like 1 mile from my house. See that beaut at least 2 times a month in the hangar

The Super Guppy aircraft were always so fascinating to look at and see fly. This was a great tutorial and I always look forward to another one since you started this series on the aircraft themselves. Thanks for sharing this neat story.

11:40 Wonderful look back at the birth of the "Guppy" type logistics aircraft. Great job, as usual. Also, "disensemble" may be a new favorite word of the week. Keep coining those Petter-isms, and we'll keep watching! :)

THEY LOOK SO GOOFY I LOVE THEM

MENTOUR,an encyclopedia of knowledge not just aviation but a lot about human behaviour. Thanks for your hard work. It has/is very useful in my daily life. Changed my approaches to safety and team management.

When I was a kid, *I watched a Guppy* take off out of San Diego regularly carrying DC-10 fuselage sections from Convair up to Douglas in Long Beach. Dad worked for Convair and led a team to redesign the DC-10 forward wheel because Douglas screwed up the design.

One of the greatest aircraft documentaries of all time is "Flying through Time" and it speaks very highly of the Guppy and the Beluga. Shame we can't have a modern automated mating system on a plane like the guppy. With today's technology? the design is just pure weight saving.

Another beautiful aircraft, but in a very different way.

I remember as a child back in the late 60s hearing a prop plane above, it was the Guppy. I thought that was one weird looking airplane. I lived in San Diego Ca. Which I believe at the time was still a major aerospace manufacturing center.

I have seen the super guppy at EAA this year for the first time they are big

That mini guppy with the name "Erickson" is sitting at the Tillamook, OR air museum. And there is public access to the interior of it.

Wow, I had no idea all these flying fish existed. Very interesting, informative, and as always, well written and narrated. Thank you.

Thanks Mentour for a very informative piece! And I love how passionate you are

Another great video! I’m a big fan if the Super Guppy and own a small piece of skin of the #1 airplane that was made into an aviation tag. It is also the first model I bought for my 1:400 airplane collection.

I knew that the Guppies are extremely interesting planes but I never dared to think they are THIS amazing! Thank you, Petter-the story is great but it is even greater as it is told. Thanks for your team, too-your videos are getting better and better!

So happy as a history nerd to have these great videos on commercial-aviation history and the evolution of these iconic aircraft.

I loved the history behind this Guppy. The fact that a man goes from his last borrowed dollar to a successful company is amazing. Doesn't Kelsey from 74Gear occasionally fly these Belugas? Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed this one.

I have seen a super-guppy at NASA in FL and there is also a museum Fantasy of Flight, they have a Lockheed Constellation in static display. Both really cool aircraft.

Aero Spacelines still had an 377 cockpit and nose section on site in the Mid 80s, when they were converting PanAm DC-10s to United configuration. The cockpit even had its sealed toilet with the sign "You use it, you clean it!"

I got the opportunity to see and touch that last guppy at an air show a year or two ago. They've always been one of my favorites since I was a kid.

Don’t think most people realize the extent to which aviation has shaped for better or worse the world we have today. Somewhere in the future the 20th century will be known as the aviation age. Aviation involves every scientific discovery and technology known to mankind. That is what makes it such a fascinating subject even to someone who isn’t in the industry. You have hit a home run with your series.

This is a great story! Thanks for bringing this out. Continue to enjoy the Mentour Pilot channel. Keep up the great work! 😊

Super interesting history and it answered my biggest question. How they maintained the continuity of the flight controls with the door. Its true what they say, sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.

I actually saw one of the Super Guppy planes land at Manchester Airport in 2019. It was a very unusual sight to see that day, as I'd only seen pictures of them.

I see this fly around Houston still, my dad used to work out as JSC where they have one and a few other cool planes. I don't know the correlation, but I'm deathly afraid of flying, I've flown a lot, but as a kid, and as an adult its just terrifying for me. I've been watching your series on Mentour Pilot and have been surprised I haven't had to click off, most videos or shorts that show up on KZfaq are an instant pass for me, even when people talk about stuff, I just don't want to hear it. I almost had to click off the most recent Southwest incident video since that is the airline I generally use the most, but I kept watching and and was glad because the in the end it was just an amazing performed for all of the crew all around. I had no idea any recent incidents because I blocked out everything regarding flying and would avoid even flying any chance I could. Your videos are so informative and presented with a lot of respect, not just some shock and awe horror video about these tragedies, and I've gone through so many videos now. I spent probably 2 hours talking to my dad over breakfast about everything I learned, and he was ecstatic that he was able to have an aviation conversation with his daughter, and he was just impressed how much I knew. He was so proud. My dad has been a jet engine mechanic since the Air Force and went to GE and then JSC/NASA, he ended up working through some investigations on engines and parts for some of these accidents and was in QA at JSC. The one thing I remember about him was how serious he took the QA job, he was always on top of making sure things were done properly and that no short cuts were made, some people didn't like that, but I'm glad he never backed down on that, no matter how long it would take to keep a plane or engine out of service. The crews safety in a plane was the most important thing to him. I don't think my fear of flying is cured instantly, but now I can actually talk and watch about things. So thank you for these amazing videos! Sorry for the wall of text!

Truly, “The Flying Barn Door”.

Another deep dive that would be interesting would be BEA. Also my great uncle was the artist who designed the BOAC logo referred to as the BOAC arrow. The BEA offices were in line with the runway at Northolt (then London) Airport and had tire tracks on the flat roof where pilots had come in a bit low. My mother worked there in the 1950s.

...🤤 and a Universal Soldier reference ? I don't know what my own diagram looks like, but apparently it connects right here 😎👍

I lived in Long Beach in the late 60s when I was a child. I remember seeing a Guppy several times. My Dad told me it was a 'pregnant guppy.'

I lived in Toulouse as a student and the sight of the Belugas going down to or out from Blagnac Airport where the main Airbus assembly factory is was always amazing. I didn't know Airbus first used the Guppies, that was an interesting video.