THis showed up on base...

There is one parked at kelp, El Paso, Tx - have never seen it move.
 
Crosswinds must be super fun.
 
They were bringing the Orion space capsule there. I'm surprised they are still flying it. I'm also surprised they didn't use another aircraft for the purpose.
 
It was an experiment in 'maximizing wetted surface of airplanes', lol.
 
One big,ugly airplane ,have seen one parked but never saw one fly.
 
We see one around Ellington field fairly regularly. It flies pretty slowly.
 
I had dinner with one of those pilots. He said most people fly airplanes that have the pointy end in front.

The procedure for flying it is to push the throttles forward and then put both hands on the yoke and keep them there until you land. The thing isn't overly stable and has a relatively low service ceiling (like 22,000') that keeps it from getting out of the weather. The engineer handles all the subsequent power adjustments.
 
Shiny new one - first flight July 2018, they are going to make 5.

300px-%22Beluga_XL%22_A330-743L_%28cropped%29.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga_XL
 
In it's heyday, it delivered a lot of Saturn 5 components, and airplane parts.
 
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