Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Super Guppy! NASA's whale-shaped cargo plane makes a rare public appearance




NASA’s Super Guppy cargo plane has been cheered by hundreds of people in Seattle as it delivered part of the Space Shuttle Trainer.



More than a thousand people gathered at the Museum of Flight as the aircraft circled before landing for welcome ceremony.



Inside the turboprop plane was the crew compartment of NASA’s Full Fuselage Shuttle Trainer - a full-scale mockup of the Space Shuttle Orbiter - which is now owned by the museum.

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Inside the turboprop plane was the crew compartment of NASA's Full Fuselage Shuttle Trainer, which is now owned by the museum

It is just one piece of a future exhibit which museum officials call 'world class'.



It will feature the 121-foot shuttle trainer, which had never before left Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

It will be completely reassembled in the Museum of Flight’s $12 million Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.



When finished, the trainer will look like a life-size but wingless space shuttle.

The delivery of the 28-foot crew compartment is the first of three trips NASA's Super Guppy cargo plane is scheduled to make to the museum

Two more flights will bring sections of the shuttle trainer's 61-foot cargo bay to the museum in Seattle

The delivery of the 28-foot crew compartment is the first of three trips NASA’s Super Guppy cargo plane is scheduled to make on the project. Two more flights will bring sections of the trainer’s 61-foot cargo bay.



Other parts of the mock-up are being delivered by truck. The first to arrive were three engine bells, replicas of the shuttle’s mammoth exhaust cones, that came in mid April.



Gov Chris Gregoire told the waiting crowds: 'We want the aerospace leaders of tomorrow to be inspired right here.'

The Museum of Flight is paying NASA $2 million to deliver the shuttle trainer, which NASA Administrator Charles Bolden awarded the museum last year.



Seattle had been among more than 20 sites that sought to host one of NASA’s retiring space shuttles, which Bolden awarded to visitor centers in New York, Los Angeles, Florida and the Washington, D.C., area — places he said would maximize the number of people who see them



Museum of Flight officials hope to capitalise on the fact that visitors will be able to step inside the FFT, unlike the real shuttles, which must be displayed at a distance.

The Museum of Flight is paying NASA $2 million to deliver the shuttle trainer, which will be a 'world class' exhibit

VIDEO: Amazing footage shows the whale-shaped Super Guppy in action