This photograph documents an Aero Spacelines Guppy-series aircraft, one of the unusual bulbous-fuselage transports developed in the 1960s to ferry oversized rocket stages for NASA's Apollo program. With its nose or tail section hinged open, the aircraft's cavernous cargo hold could swallow a Saturn rocket stage whole, dramatically speeding up transport between manufacturing plants and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral. Though not a combat aircraft, the Guppy played a quiet but essential role in America's Space Race achievements. Project: 218474