Proposals to use transport aircraft to haul hardware for Saturn missions

[Vahe231991]

We're familiar with the Aero Spacelines conversion of mothballed Boeing 377 Stratocruiser airliners into the Pregnant Guppy and Super Guppy cargo aircraft to carry Saturn rocket stages and other hardware for the Apollo program, but I have a copy of the book American Secret Projects 3: US Airlifters Since 1962 and Chapter Eight discusses a number of unrealized proposals to haul components for the Saturn I and V rockets as well components for Apollo spacecraft:
- 1961 proposals to fit the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster with a cargo pod atop the fuselage to haul components for the Saturn rocket and Apollo program (to better accommodate the pod, the single vertical stabilizer would be replaced by twin vertical fins as seen in the VM-T Atlant conversion of the M-4 'Bison' bomber and the Antonov An-225)
- The Conroy Princess Guppy conversion of the Saunders-Roe Princess prototype passenger flying boat to carry S-II stages for the Saturn V rocket
- Convair design studies for transport aircraft to carry S-II stages for the Saturn V in a huge pod below the fuselage
- Howard 100 DBA (Damn Big Airplane) biplane transport with ten piston engines
- Fairchild M-534 with a greatly enlarged fuselage to haul components for the S-II stages of the Saturn V rocket
- Temo/LTV Model 122 Air Trailer unpowered outsized airlifter to carry components for the Saturn I and IB rockets
- Proposed version of the Convair 990 airliner to carry components for the Apollo program in either a pod or faired-in structure atop the fuselage
- Design studies by Fairchild for existing commercial aircraft to carry S-IVB stages for the Saturn V in an enlarged fuselage (lost out to the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy)
- Lockheed Missiles and Space Division proposal for an unpowered heavy lift aircraft to carry S-I components for the Saturn I rocket

Also in this book, on page 30 there are photos of mock-ups of components of the losing Douglas competitor for the Apollo program contract being used in loading demonstrations inside the fuselage mock-up of the Douglas D-902, one of several design studies by Douglas for the CX-4 requirement that morphed into the CX-HLS competition that was won by the Lockheed L-500 (which became the C-5 Galaxy).