Hello, what's going on here I wonder? A bit of aviation vandalism perhaps?
Biglorryblog's Cloggie Mate and commercial manager at LDV Group benelux BV Henk Kruit has really done me proud by sending me all this terrific shots of heavy haulers shifting bits of ex-military aircraft to the elephant's graveyard--or the 'boneyard' as the Americans have it--and they have a fabulous one at Davis Monthan in Arizona...
But that's over there... Anyway I'll let Henk tell the story...
"Hi Brian, here some pics of a aircraft transport from Orleans to the aircraft graveyard in Chateaudun (France)."
"Great Pics! It's a Transall C-160R R44; French Airforce - that's them in the background 'complete'. (still waiting for a 'Yes' from our new investor...). Regards,Henk." And just in case you haven;t worked it out they're removing the wings and tailplane etc so they can transport them and the fuselage individually by... You guessed it road...!
And here's the fuselage being loaded up... Look carefully and you can see there are two cranes doing the work.
This shows them much better - even without wings, tailplane and engines and with al the major systems and other 'mechanical gubbins' ( it's technical term - I wouldn't expect you to understand) stripped out it's still a big old lump to lift!
Gently does it... And quite a bit sticking out the side with the main undercarriage still attached...
Meanwhile, here are the 'wings'... Or what's left of them... Being loaded onto another flat trailer pulled by an XF Daf...
Time to hit the road guys.
Now the fun and games really begins....for this is the REAL start of the journey
Look out Nobby D... It's a plane on the road heading your way!
It's a bit tight through those quaint French towns...!
See what I mean? And those low slung cables don't help much either... Now click through here for more on-the-road shots...
Naturally it comes with it's own 'Convoi Exceptionnel' escort and French motorcycle cop.
And oviously it attracted lots of curious onlookers...
You wouldn't want to be going the other way would you?
Almost at its final resting place... But first you've got to swing it around off the road...
The rest looks relatively easy trundling along the perimeter track...you can clearly see the rear overhang too!
Here's the full 'convoy' of the fuselage, lifting cranes and the wings...
And off it comes again...
And there's the last bits off...and my thanks to Henk for a SUPERB series of shots! Of course I can't help thinking it would have been quicker to crash-land them here in the first place... What do you think?
Great photos, do you know where the graveyard is in France? It would be nice to have a look on Google Earth.
Sorry, should have read the post more closely. Try this link:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Chateaudun&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=11.540145,27.949219&ie=UTF8&ll=48.053644,1.36812&spn=0.006368,0.013647&t=h&z=16