The historic aircraft skin of the Super Guppy will be available at Aviationtag starting in April 2021 as a key and luggage tag collector’s item in a limited and exclusive edition.
Pre-orders are now being taken.
The F-BTGV freighter — an Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Turbine (SGT-201) — was built in the 1960s as a direct enhancement of the Super Guppy (SG-201) based on the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser for NASA.
The first two of the four SGT-201 freighters ever built made their maiden flights in the early 1970s and were deployed by NASA in the Apollo programs.
Once the projects were discontinued, the French company Aéromaritime gave the Super Guppy registered as F-BTGV a new lease on life in November 1971 and the Super Guppy registered as F-BPPA a new start in August 1973 transporting parts for the Concorde and Airbus models to the final assembly factory in Toulouse.
The aircraft was given its distinct colored livery and Airbus Skylink lettering on the fuselage in the 1980s.
The Super Guppy was in service for almost a quarter of a century. The F-BTGV took to the skies for the last time on July 1, 1996, headed for a museum in Bruntingthorpe, England. There, from 2009 onwards, it was maintained and restored by the Super Guppy Restoration Project.
Eleven years later the Super Guppy had to leave, though, as the privately run museum closed its doors in March 2020.
Skin from the historic freighter is being reborn as an Aviationtag.
To make an Aviationtag, parts of the outer skin are disassembled and cut at the company’s factory in Cologne, Germany, until they are small enough be punched into the Aviationtag shape.
The final step in this upcycling process is laser engraving, according to company officials. Each of the limited-edition Aviationtags features the aircraft type and registration number, the edition number, and size.
Each Aviationtag may differ from other serial numbers in thickness, color, and structure, and is one of a kind, company officials note. The engraved data can even be used to locate registered users thanks to Aviationtag’s Lost & Found Service.
Price: 29.95 Euros, which is $36.30 in U.S. dollars.
Sold out fast!