Plane flies with Prangl

The 53.1m long and 43.2m wide Iljuschin IL-62—former aeroplane of the president of Czechoslovakia—was en route for two nights. On the first night, the 70m long abnormal load on a turntable trailer made its way from Heidenreichstein to Baden.

The load consisted only of the aircraft fuselage, in its own custom framework. With a transport width of 5m and an overall transport weight of 121t, this project was not a standard application.

Precision work was called for in Lower Austria, but things got really tight in Graz. In addition to crossing a number of traffic islands, it was necessary to temporarily disassemble traffic lights, street lighting masts, flagpoles, traffic signs and a ventilation shaft. Furthermore, a railway crossing was also provisionally adapted. The parking spaces on both sides of some road sections had to be cordoned off, to allow the transporter to pass through. The wings, tail, engines and other accessories had been delivered a few days beforehand.

The wingless fuselage was raised together with its frame (total weight of 54t) to a height of 10m and rotated through 90° for intermediate placement on the sports field behind the hotel.

During this manoeuvre, the aircraft only just passed by the façade of a neighbouring office building. And after rotation, the fuselage jutted right across a heavily frequented main road. Safety was therefore of the highest priority in every regard.

The fuselage was subsequently lifted onto the parking deck of the hotel by a 200t Terex-Demag all terrain, where the machine was assembled over a number of weeks. In its fully assembled state, a 500t and a 200t all terrain, also from Terex-Demag, lifted the 62t plane onto the hotel roof at a height of roughly 25m.

Almost one year of preplanning, numerous studies and the outstanding efforts of the entire Prangl team made the project a complete success.