Tinker rejuvenates Guppy for 10 more years

Published April 18, 2008
By Danielle Gregory
72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- In February of last year, Debra Bennett, lead Guppy project pre-planner, went with several others from Tinker Air Force Base to visit the NASA Super Guppy and help Tinker engage in making history.
   Tinker was chosen to inspect and fix anything found wrong with the Guppy during its stay on-base. The project planners have estimated that it should take about 14,770 hours to inspect and fix the plane, which has never been fixed prior to this.
   "Tinker has a great reputation for having lots of capabilities when it comes to doing significant maintenance," said NASA Chief, Flight Engineer Henry Taylor. "We wanted to go someplace where we could have the kind of expertise and support to support a one of a kind airplane and Tinker has that."
   "They don't know what is wrong on the plane, but they are trying to keep it going. We will be doing a lot of inspecting and then we will turn in our inspections and NASA will decided whether we fix it or not," said project supervisor Keith Kingsbury.
   "Everything else has been done by contractors; this is the first time Air Force has gotten involved. Tinker in particular was selected, because we had so many different things we can do right here," said Ms. Bennett.
   Unless something that requires extensive repairs is found, the project planners have a timeline that consists of having the inspections and repairs done by Aug. 22 as a goal; but with a drop dead date of Sept. 29.
   NASA personnel will be on site for the entire time the plane is being worked on. The mechanics teams from E-3s who will be working on the plane include: Robert Coyne, Delo Anderson, Chris Gomez, Peter Lachance, William Harvey, Kevin Pierson, Mike Mital, Brett McKinley, Terry Gist, Daniel Montalvo, David Starkweather, Antonio Burciaga, Brandon Boling, Timothy Ready, Angela Patterson, Dawn Sweeten, Jeffrey Abraham and Thinh Vu.
   "When it comes out of Tinker it should be capable of handling its duties for the next 10 years," said Guppy Electrician Daniel Thompson.
   The Guppy has been around since the early 1980s according to Guppy project planners and is mainly used to haul space shuttle and space center parts. The Guppy that Tinker is housing is one of four of the kind. The other Guppies are currently overseas in Europe on pedestals.