In the 1960s a man designed a plane so enormous it could swallow an entire Saturn rocket whole and NASA almost built it
Published on Apr 02, 2026 at 11:03 AM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Apr 01, 2026 at 7:54 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
The 1960s were full of truly unusual aviation concepts, but aviation legend Dee Howard designed a plane that was so enormous, it could swallow a whole Saturn rocket, and amazingly, NASA nearly decided to build it.
Dee Howard was an inventor and aviation legend who came up with plenty of creative ideas for new aircraft and other aviation-related technology.
Yet one of his aircraft was truly humongous, and despite its utterly bewildering design, he was able to make it make sense.
This was the huge Dee Howard DH-100 DBA, also known as the ‘Damn Big Aircraft’, and it really was damn big as well.
How Dee Howard came up with his huge design
The idea for the DBA came from a need to transport space vehicles around the United States.
In the early days of the space race, aircraft weren’t necessarily a viable option due to their size.
Rocket components, such as those for the Saturn V, were simply too big to fit in a regular plane.
Ferrying them on ships or trains in sections was possible, but it was often very slow, as components had to be shipped from Huntsville, Alabama, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then to Florida’s Cape Canaveral.
This was a distance of over 2,000 miles.
Some trips were even longer, at over 4,000 miles between San Francisco and New Orleans.
At a time when the United States was locked into a space race with the Soviet Union, time was of the essence.
The Space Race had captured the public’s imagination, and if America could win the race, then even better.
Aircraft like the Super Guppy proved space components could be transported by air.
But Dee Howard decided to take things even further.
This was the DH-100 ‘Damn Big Aircraft’ designed for NASA
In 1965, NASA was shopping around for an aircraft that could potentially transport the proposed Saturn II rockets.
Even though it had the Super Guppy, it wanted something even bigger.
This is where the mighty Dee Howard design came in.
Officially, it was called the Dee Howard DH-100 DBA, but affectionately, it became the ‘Damn Big Airplane’.
That name summed it up perfectly, as the airplane was huge in scale.
The cargo hold would have had a diameter of 40ft and been 200ft long, while the cockpit would look bewilderingly small plopped onto the top of the huge cargo hold.
Two sets of wings would be used, the top section with three engines each, and the bottom with two each.
The wings would have been 40ft in diameter, and power came from 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone turbo radials.
Dee Howard would take these engines from a Douglas DC-7, and each had 3,400hp, totalling 34,000hp.
Other parts also came from other aircraft, such as the wings from a Convair B-36 and the cockpit from a DC-7.
NASA expressed interest in the DBA
Despite the madness of the design, NASA was interested in the DBA.
It even got as far as a wind tunnel model, as well as a scale mockup that went through extensive testing.
And the wind tunnel testing suggested that, despite its ungainly proportions, the aircraft would be able to fly.
Given it could have swallowed a Saturn rocket whole, it was understandable that NASA was keen on the idea.
An aircraft that could carry a rocket in one go, without needing a long shipping journey? It sounded perfect.
In the end, however, NASA decided against pursuing the DBA any further.
They ultimately felt the Super Guppy was more than good enough for the job it had in mind.
Ironically, the Saturn II rocket was never built either.
How the Dee Howard DH-100 DBA took to the skies
Amazingly, the Damn Big Aircraft did take to the skies…sort of.
In 1990, Dee Howard commissioned Tom Prescott of Prescott Products in Boerne, Texas, to make a scale model that flew.
As a skilled model aircraft designer, Prescott was perfect for the job.
In the end, he built a 1:16 scale model out of balsa wood, fiberglass, foam, and plywood.
Prescott flew the model in 2001, which proved to Howard that his design could have worked.
What looks like it was the creation of AI was in fact a real machine that, as we’ve found out, could have flown.
In the end, NASA decided, for whatever reason, that it didn’t need the DBA.
So the dream of the Damn Big Aircraft was destined to remain just that.
But it has given us one of the most unusual stories in aviation history.
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Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a heritage steam railway.
