September 25 - Cargolux has successfully arranged the transportation of its heaviest piece of equipment ever flown from Switzerland.
The shipment, which was headed for South Korea, comprised a 48-tonne-rotor intended to equip a generator, took 12 aircraft positions and required the attention of a full team of outsize specialists.
"Carrying heavy, dense cargo in closed packages such as containers or crates requires extraordinary efforts to ensure safe on-aircraft tie-down in forward, aft, left, right and up direction, as we can only secure the outer package and have no influence on what happens to the content when exposed to dynamic accelerations," said Okan Akpinar, country manager, Switzerland.
"While it would have been easier for us to lash the rotor directly, we were happy to accommodate the customer's preference for flying this huge shipment as one single piece, including the lid of the rotor. Together with the customer we were able to assess an adequate form-fit and force-fit securing inside the container, with the lashing applied to specifically designed tie-down lugs at dedicated, reinforced outside locations."
Cargolux uses a self-developed IT application to plan and calculate the correct loading and tie-down of heavy shipments. The application takes into consideration all strap angles and the resulting aircraft attachment point capabilities to ensure a safe tie-down in full compliance to the applicable Boeing 747 freighter weight and balance manual.
It has been confirmed that everything went well at both ends and forwarding agent Panalpina have expressed their full satisfaction.
