Aero Spacelines, Inc.

Aero Spacelines, Inc. was an American aircraft manufacturer active from 1960 to 1968, that converted Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and C-97 aircraft into the Guppy line of airplanes, re-engineered to transport oversized cargo such as space exploration vehicles. These inspired later aircraft of similar concept, such as the Conroy Skymonster, Myasishchev VM-T, Airbus Beluga and Boeing Dreamlifter.

History

Aero Spacelines was formed with only one customer in mind: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA needed to transport outsize cargo from manufacturing plants such as the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. These items were too large to be safely transported by rail or truck. Shipping by sea was time-consuming, expensive, and risky, with the danger of damaging the cargo on turbulent seas. But no aircraft of the day was large enough.

John M. “Jack” Conroy, a retired United States Air Force pilot, and Lee Mansdorf, an aircraft salesman and entrepreneur, formulated the Guppy concept one evening over dinner. They decided to create a company to manufacture outsized aircraft. Conroy hired Robert W. Lillibridge as vice president of manufacturing and engineering, and a team was assembled for the project. Financing was provided by venture capitalist William Ballon, a World War II combat veteran also from the Army Air Corps. In 1960, Aero Spacelines began working at Van Nuys Airport, California, to transform a Boeing 377 airliner into the Pregnant Guppy.

NASA’s Project Gemini made early use of the Pregnant Guppy to transport the first and second stages of Titan II GLV from the Martin Co. in Baltimore, Maryland, to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Subsequent versions of the Guppy series hauled the S-IVB, the third stage of the Saturn booster from California to Florida.

Aero Spacelines was sold in August 1965 to Unexcelled, Inc., a publicly traded company that had subsidiaries engaged in discount store retailing, meatpacking equipment and iron castings. Unexcelled also owned American Airmotive Corporation, an aircraft maintenance and repair organization