VIDEO: Burlington Resident Captures Landing of Rare Aircraft

A Burlington resident captured footage of the landing of a rare aircraft at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford last week.

Chris McDonough, of Burlington, an avid plane spotter who takes videos of aircraft as a hobby, has shared the YouTube video above with Burlington Patch.

The video features a Aero Spacelines Super Guppy landing at Hanscom on Tuesday, March 26.

According to Wikipedia, only five Super Guppy aircrafts were made. The aircraft is a large, wide-bodied craft meant for hauling outsized cargo components. It was the successor to the Pregnant Guppy, the first of the Guppy aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines. 

The main portion of its fuselage was constructed by Aero Spacelines with  an improved fuselage and engines allowed for a maximum load of 54,500 pounds, the Wikipedia entry states. These design improvements, combined with a pressurized crew cabin allow for higher-altitude cruising and transports more cargo than its predecessors.

The unique nose gear came from the Boeing 707 and was reversed 180 degrees, Wikipedia states. This dropped the front of the aircraft slightly, leveling the cargo bay floor and simplifying loading operations.

McDonough said the reason that the Super Guppy was at Hanscom was that it was delivering a heat shield that will be used on NASA's next generation of space craft, which is will be called the Orion Nasa spacecraft.  The heat shield was then delivered to Textron Systems in Wilmington to have a protective coating put on it.

See the original YouTube video by clicking this link.

Also, McDonough has over 100 videos to his credit on his YouTube page. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/user/BostonAirborne