Aero Spacelines and the "Saro Princess"

boxkite

boxkite

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At the beginning of 1964 an US scrap merchant has been bought the three Saro Princess flying-boats. Around this time Aero Spacelines planned to equip them with landing gear, bigger fuselage and jet engines to transport the largest parts of the Saturn rockets from inside USA to the launch pads on the coast.

Who can give more details (name of the monster, artworks, 3-view, etc)? Thank you in advance.
 
There was a Twin Princess proposal also.
Have to dig deep in my files...
 
There's not much left over from the original Princess,
and it don't look nobel any more ... :-\

(from AviationWeek_1963_9-17)
 

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And these are the twin and the landplane version of the Princess,
but I don't know if they were related to the Aero Spacelines proposal.
 

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No more digging to do on a Friday evening :D

Thanks Jemiba.
 
Pregnant with a giant (Saturn) baby!

Jens, thanks a lot.
 
lark, don't stop digging - I'm sure there are other treasures in your collection ;).
 
In the fact,

the Aero Spacelines used instead Super Guppy SG to transport Saturn
rockers in 1965.
 

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Yes indeed Boxkite.(and thanks for the support )
Next week Monday I send you the Conroy 'Virtus' and 'Colossus' projects.
'Think they fit perfect in this thread.
 
Yes please, Paul. I have only tiny scans from Xerox copies of worst quality. Better artworks (and maybe specifications too) are very welcome :).
 
Jemiba said:
(from AviationWeek_1963_9-17)
Click to expand...

Jesus! This picture can be clearly named "I can eat anything!"

lark said:
Next week Monday I send you the Conroy 'Virtus' and 'Colossus' projects.
Click to expand...

Can I outrun you with the Virtus? See the bottom of the page:

http://www.hitechweb.genezis.eu/giganti.htm
 
boxkite said:
Who can give more details (name of the monster, artworks, 3-view, etc)? Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I can. I raided the NASA-MSFC history archive a few years back, and got a lot of Saturn-transporter designs copied. Blimps, C-130 towing gliders, B-52 conversion, B-36 conversion and, IIRC, the Princess conversion. Might take some digging, though.
 
...and the ends of the rotor blades were travelling in hypersonic speeds :)

I checked the link and it works without problems, but for those that cant open it:
 

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Thanks to all :).

Matej, I have the same problem as Antonio. Is it a browser problem?
 
Till the end of the January I want to move to the new server http://www.hitechweb.genezis.eu and now I am fixing these bugs, removing two years old statements "comming soon" :) and so. When I was younger I used VML in my files, so that can be a problem. I hope it will be fixed. More info in "useful links" section soon.
 
pometablava said:
While waiting for Orionblamblam posts...
Click to expand...


Found the drawing. Currently scanning. Small problem detected: the original drawing was very large... four or five feet long, and the photocopier was small, so I had to copy it in patches. Seems I missed a bit... the tip of the vertical tail.

Ooops.
 
Thanks a lot, Scott. Maybe Jens can assemble it to one of his fabulous drawings ;D ...
 
More real big ones on:

www.allaboutguppys.com

Choose: what if we...

Enjoy :)
 
Great finding, Paul. My favourite is the attached one. A long way to the pilot's workplace ;D.
 

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boxkite said:
Great finding, Paul. My favourite is the attached one. A long way to the pilot's workplace ;D.
Click to expand...

Hi Boxkite!

Interesting picture! Could this be the world's most massive bi-plane?

Chuck
 
boxkite said:
Great finding, Paul. My favourite is the attached one. A long way to the pilot's workplace ;D.
Click to expand...

Hi Boxkite!

I wonder if there are any three-view line drawings of this aircraft? It would be kind of neat to see an aircraft like this painted completely white, with "UN" initials painted-on, and then seeing them on humanitarian missions to Africa.
(They'd sure hold a lot of food, medicine and other essential supplies for a lot of people!)
Imagine having to service or change the engines on the top wing!


Chuck
 
ChuckAnderson said:
It would be kind of neat to see an aircraft like this painted completely white, with "UN" initials painted-on, and then seeing them on humanitarian missions to Africa.
(They'd sure hold a lot of food, medicine and other essential supplies for a lot of people!)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but think of how much payola it could carry for the bureaocrats back at the UN!
 
Always had a soft soft for the guppy, ever since I saw them loading at Liverpool airport as a kid in the late 70's. Anyway, prior to the Boeing Stratocruiser/C97 based model we know so well, Aero Spacelines had planned to base the guppy on the SARO Princess, the 3 examples of which were cocooned on the Solent. This apparently fell through due to excessive corrosion of airframes in the sea air.

My question is this, does anyone have any info or pictures of the proposed conversion? Theres 2 images on http://www.allaboutguppys.com/, one jet powered with what appears to be B52 power plants http://www.allaboutguppys.com/whatif/gupy260a.jpg, and the other with the 6 tyne installation proposed for the AEW Princess http://www.allaboutguppys.com/whatif/ssgup2a.jpg, but apart from that info seeems rather scarce.

Zeb
 
Zeb, welcome. You just need to search forum a little to find everything you need)
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1292.0.html
 
Orionblamblam said:
Last of 'em. Note the cut-off vertical tail... ooops.
Click to expand...


Here is the complete drawing.
 

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hesham said:
Here is the complete drawing.
Click to expand...

If the Stratocruiser was modified to be the Pregnant Guppy, what on Earth would this have been called?!? The "Queen Bee"?
 

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