[El Gato]

Great thread but what the heck kind of plane is that a picture of in post #106? Photoshopped?

Nope, it's a Super Guppy, used to transport out-sized, but not especially heavy, cargo. Often fuselage sections for large aircraft. But that particular one appears to be the NASA owned Super Guppy

IIRC, Airbus has a jet airliner converted to the Guppy configuration. However that one, and all the US versions, started life as a Boeing Stratocruiser (or possibly a KC-97, which was the earlier military version of the same airframe.) The radial piston engines have been swapped for turbo-props, and of course the main lobe's diameter has been grossly increased.

I actually rode in a C-97 once. It had been the command post bird for CincSAC General Curtis LeMay in an earlier life. The -97 and the Stratocruiser were in essence B-29s with a larger diameter fuselage. Wing, landing gear, wheels, and even controls and radios were the same as the old B-29 from late WW-II. I flew in the -97 in 1971.

[metmom]

Thanks for the info. It's still one of the strangest looking planes I've ever seen. These days with photoshop, it's sometimes hard to tell what's real and the work of a good computer geek. My kids have done some amazing stuff with photoshop.