September 30 - Riga Mainz has used a Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane to lift an 82-tonne Airbus A-300 over a fence at Cologne-Bonn Airport.
The aircraft, which is used to simulate parabolic flight and has been named Zero-G, was lifted from the airport's apron using the Liebherr crawler and a complex combination of attachment equipment, including two cross beams and three load spreaders developed by Riga Mainz.
Uwe Langer, managing director of Riga Mainz, explained that the specifications for the lifting job at the airport were very stringent, with a limited set-up height and various requirements for attaching the fragile loads.
A remote controlled chain hoist was used to adjust the crane hook precisely over the overall centre of gravity, which Liebherr explained made it possible to adjust the required angle of the aircraft to generate no upthrust in the event of wind and inflows from the front.
Once in the air, the aircraft was turned around 180 degrees before being transported a distance of 20 m and lowered onto foundations in its final position.
