Super Guppy
Mystery solved: Bizarre mega-aircraft at Hobby Airport is part of Space City's forgotten past
A strange piece of Space City history was unlocked this week after a local Reddit user posted an image of one of the oddest aircrafts ever flown this side of Area 51.
Basically, picture a regular cargo plane . . . with a huge forehead . . . that's designed to seat a herd of dinosaurs . . . and actually flies . . . in the sky . . . on Planet Earth.
If you still can't image it, click here to see the plane sitting on the tarmac at Hobby Airport this month. For a point of comparison, note the Southwest flight waiting patiently to the side.
Thanks to the power of Reddit's devoted followers, the mystery was solved in less than three minutes by a commenter who send a Wikipedia link to the Super Guppy — a massive NASA aircraft used to ferry parts for the International Space Station.
Turns out it's the last of its kind in operation and resides at Ellington Airport along with the Johnson Space Center's two B-57 high-altitude research planes.
For all you space buffs out there, check out NASA's detailed history of Super Guppy on the agency's website.