Air, Feature, Freight News

ACS and Antonov move Americas’ biggest air load

[ November 25, 2016   //   Chris ]

Air Charter Service’s Brazil and Florida offices chartered Antonov Airlines’ giant AN-225 to carry the heaviest single piece of air cargo to be flown in the Americas, a 182 tonne transformer from São Paulo to Santiago de Chile. From there it was transferred to its final destination, where it replaced a damaged transformer in a plant near the capital.
President of ACS Americas, Richard Thompson, added that it was also the second heaviest single piece of cargo that has ever been transported by air anywhere in the world, only 5.7 tonnes short of the 187.7 tonne record set in 2009.
He added: “A lot of careful planning went into this operation. 182,000 kilos is more than most cranes’ lifting capacity, and with the tricky dimensions, it took almost four months of discussions between us, the client, the airline and the airports to plan the charter and exactly how we would load and offload the cargo.
“The power unit is more than four metres high, and that doesn’t include the transportation cradle that it is travelling in. As you can see from the photo, it was a tight fit, even for the world’s largest cargo aircraft. It generated a lot of local attention, with many Brazilian television networks covering the loading and departure.”

Tags: Air Charter Service, Antonov