With any movement involving aircraft components, the first question we always ask is whether the item in question will ever take to the air again? If the answer is no, although special care will still be taken, it will not be quite so extreme. If the answer is yes, this is a completely different matter – meticulous care and beyond are paramount .
At one level, there is the redundant aircraft fuselage, from the UK to Germany, being re-configured to provide crew training – never to fly again. Similarly – a Jetstream executive twin-turboprop airliner, from Culdrose in Cornwall, to Swansea university, to be used for educational purposes – an historic aircraft, the Blackburn Buccaneer, on route for display at a museum etc.
At the other extreme, there is the BAe 146 regional airliner which suffered a hard landing at Samsun in northern Turkey – if it is dismantled, can you (with care) bring it back to the UK? Having flown out to check local facilities, within weeks a member of the STG Team had everything in hand.
Both these, and everything in between, has been tackled at some time by STG – not forgetting the aircraft simulator from Copenhagen to Southampton, the nose cone (radome) to Majorca, the steel aircraft fuselage to Newquay airport, used for fire training purposes and more.
Perhaps one of the most challenging, in different times, was the movement of a satellite section from Moscow to L’Aquila, near Rome – for the European Space Agency.
