Originally Posted by
Toddnel
One question I gotta ask... What is the deal with United's fetish with calling the 73 the Guppy? For the most part the only pilot group I have ever heard calling it that is United. Not to mention it seems like most take a great deal of pleasure is saying it as much as they possibly can. Not that I really care just wondering.
Former Guppy Captain now Triple FO
Todd
Its not a fetish. We flew the aircraft for over 30 years. We always called it the guppy. Shuttle was "shuttle guppy". Mainline was "mainline guppy". 737-200 was "Thunder guppy". We are certainly not the only airline to call it that.
Its just what we called it. Why call the 777 the "Triple seven"? Why not the seven seven seven? We don't usually call the 747 the Whale. We call it the "400" because we used to have the 747-100 and 200 that were the "ropestart".
Its certainly NOT an insult, but its amazing how many pilots get all upset when we call the airplane a guppy.
I've never heard an airbus pilot get upset for falling the airbus "The Bus".