Super Guppy flies to Altus AFB

Photo By Staff Sgt. Kirby Turbak | Gabe Quintana and James Isley, DynCorp B-377 Super Guppy maintainers, work on the Super Guppy’s landing gear, May 17, 2017, at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The Super Guppy and a crew of maintainers came to Altus AFB to do routine maintenance on its landing gear inside a hangar large enough to house it. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kirby Turbak/Released)  

ALTUS AFB, OK, UNITED STATES

05.15.2017

Story by Senior Airman Kirby Turbak 

97th Air Mobility Wing

The NASA B-377 Super Guppy flew to Altus AFB from El Paso, Texas for routine maintenance on, May 15, 2017.
"They were doing non-destructive inspections to the attaching mounts that the gears connect to,” said Rex Holding, 97th Maintenance Directorate chief of the Maintenance Operations Flight. “They pulled the gear out, stripped the paint around the mounts on the plane, tested them for cracks and corrosion and re-installed the gear.”
Maintenance like this requires an aircraft to be inside a hangar, but with a wingspan of 156 feet wide and tail standing at more than 50 feet in the air, finding a hangar large enough to fit the Super Guppy can be challenging.
“There’s only a few hangars that we can go to,” said Greg Allen, DynCorp electric avionics technician and crew chief. “We looked at Travis AFB, Tinker AFB and all around, but decided Altus would be the best place to work.”
Though the Super Guppy’s unique look may make you think NASA has an alien space craft, its enormous size and odd shape is specifically designed to deliver oversized cargo that other aircraft cannot fit.
“This aircraft does missions for the Oren Project, we transported the heat shield from Denver to San Jose and then to Florida,” said Allen. “We also transported the crew module barrel and the service module barrel and do little stuff like transfer T-38s for Boeing.”
For those interested in getting a closer look at this unique aircraft, the Super Guppy is scheduled to be a ground display at Altus AFB’s 2017 airshow and open house on September 9, 2017.
“It’s been great working here, the personnel around here have been helpful and courteous to us,” said Allen. “We’ve had quite a good experience here and hopefully we’ll back for the airshow.”
It is not every day that NASA ask Altus AFB for help but supporting the global mission is an important factor no matter what position or service it is.

• Date Taken: 05.15.2017
• Date Posted: 07.24.2017 11:32
• Story ID: 240629
• Location: ALTUS AFB, OK, US