heavy air cargo handled at Chennai airport - 25 tons furnace to Shanghai

Marine is related to sea or naval adventure and Marine cargo Insurance is all about insuring cargo whilst in transit by sea and other modes of transport.  Sea transportation would take longer time – and is the preferred mode for big, heavy consignments.  Commodities that are required to be transported speedily are sent by air.

There are passenger aircrafts, military aircrafts and Cargo carriers.  Cargo airlines are airlines dedicated to the transport of cargo.   On some occasions, even bulkier, heavy material is transported through air.  Usage of large military airplanes for commercial purposes was  pioneered by Ukraine's Antonov Airlines in 1990s,  opening up  new types of cargo for aerial transportation, redesigning world logistics market.

Aircraft designed for cargo flight use have a number of features that distinguish them from conventional passenger aircraft: a "fat" looking fuselage, a high-wing to allow the cargo area to sit near the ground, a large number of wheels to allow it to land at unprepared locations, and a high-mounted tail to allow cargo to be driven directly into and off the aircraft.

Of the Antonovs, - Antonov An-225 Mriya was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed by the Soviet Union's Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. The An-225's name, Mriya  means "Dream" (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.  The Antonov An-225, initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran spaceplane, was an enlargement of the successful Antonov An-124.

Back home on Sunday (4^th Jan 2014), Chennai airport handled a single piece of cargo weighing 25 tonnes — the largest individual consignment in recent times, according to officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI). The cargo was on its way to Shanghai in China, “Indian airports have handled even 70 tonnes in a wide-body aircraft, but it would comprise a combination of several consignments. This is perhaps the first time that a single-piece consignment weighing 25 tonnes was loaded from the airport,” an AAI official said.

photo credit : The Hindu

The consignment was a furnace manufactured in a factory in Ambattur, according to Helmann Worldwide Logistics, the firm that transported it. “The furnace alone weighed 25,660 kg. Apart from the furnace, 12 more pieces were packed including the control panel, a cooling unit and the spares for the furnace. Together, we loaded 13 pieces that weighed 36,00,120 kg,”  The Hindu newspaper reports.

The Hindu quoting the Logistics reports that a  road survey was carried out before moving the consignment to identify possible routes to reach the airport.  On December 31, 2014,  the furnace was transported in a trailer from Ambattur and reached the airport via Maduravoyal, Tambaram and Pallavaram. “Two cranes weighing 20 tonnes each lifted the consignment and it was loaded into the aircraft using high loaders; it departed on a Boeing 747 on Sunday evening.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

6^th Jan 2015.