On this day in space! Aug. 31, 1965: NASA's ginormous Super Guppy carrier plane takes 1st flight like a flying whale

On August 31, 1965, NASA's Super Guppy cargo plane took its first test flight.

This oversized aircraft looks a bit like a giant flying whale. It was built by a company called Aero Spacelines and based on the Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser. NASA uses these funny-looking planes to transport large cargo, like spacecraft parts and other smaller aircraft. (See the Super Guppy swallow a T-38 supersonic jet!) At the time, they needed the planes to transport Apollo program rocket stages from California to Florida.

The Super Guppy has a huge cargo compartment that measures 25 feet tall, 25 feet wide and 111 feet long (7.6 x 7.6 x 33.8 meters). It can carry payloads weighing more than 26 tons. To load cargo into the plane, its entire nose hin...