@ Tillamook, OR
July 2019
The centerpiece of the Tillamook Air Museum (author’s opinion) was this Mini-Guppy. I knew of the Pregnant Guppy, and had experience working with the Super Guppy, but was unaware of the Mini Guppy. The Aero Spacelines (ASI) Mini-Guppy was the first of a new generation of Guppys built with an entirely new fuselage. With the new fuselage, ASI was able to create the first “wide-body” Guppy, with a 13 ft. wide cargo floor (Super Guppy 8′), a maximum inside diameter of 18 ft (Super Guppy 25′), and a constant section measuring just over 73 ft. long (Super Guppy 30′). The first flight of the 377MG Mini-Guppy, christened “Spirit of Santa Barbara”, was on May 24, 1967. The Mini-Guppy utilized a swing tail for loading cargo. This Mini Guppy was sold to American Jet Industries in 1974, then to Aero Union in 1980, and to Erickson Air Crane in 1988. Jack Erickson used the Mini Guppy for a number of years until retiring it to the Tillamook Air Museum in 1995. Fuji X-E2s w/18-135mm.
