Originally Posted by
Firewind
Well, I remember the "guppies" when I was going to school at UCSB. They had very swollen fuselages. They were for carrying sections of rockets or missiles. A lot of secret stuff went|(goes) on in the obscure research centers around the airport. The guppies and sometimes other normal widebodies such as DC10s and 747s would fly in and out at night, often standing on the tarmac during the day.
Do you also remember watching all manner of restored warplane firefighting airtankers flying in and out -- the B17, B24, PBY, PB4Y2, F7F, the flying boxcars and the lumbering TBM?
Yeah I do remember those! I had actually forgotten about the guppies until you mentioned them. I think they were mostly before my time, but I do remember seeing many pictures and hearing them talked about often.