LOADING EQUIPMENT


The angle between the cargo compartment floor and the airfield surface will then be about 2.5°-3°, and the angle of the front loading ramp unfolded onto the ground will make 8°. Therefore, there will be a bend between the cargo compartment floor and the front loading ramp surface of about 5°.


Now, if we try to load the said high trailer into the aircraft it will get stuck against the ceiling of the cargo compartment because of the bend. Can a cargo weighing 50 tonnes be placed into the cargo compartment of an An-124 or An-225? Yes, it can be placed there for sure but


how can this cargo be loaded inside the aircraft? The set of special loading equipment was developed to tackle the problem of loading outsize and heavy cargoes. The principle serving as the basis for such equipment is simple enough. The front ramp is retracted not on the airfield surface but onto special bearings. The height of these bearings is adjusted so that the plane of the front ramp and the floor of the cargo compartment form one plane that eliminates the bend. “Wait, wait,” a meticulous reader might say. “What’s the use of it? Now the front ramp threshold


is virtually hanging in the air instead of resting on the ground as before!” That is correct. The front threshold of the ramp will be hovering at the height of about one metre from the ground. This is where an extension ramp is joined to the front ramp of the aircraft.


At their meeting point, the extension ramp has the same height as the edge of the front ramp of the aircraft, and the same angle relatively to the surface of the airfield. On the whole, now there are two stripes, 70cm to 1m wide each, with a flat surface – instead of one extremely


“Wait, wait,” a meticulous reader might say. “What’s the use of it? Now the front ramp threshold is virtually hanging in the air instead of resting on the ground as before!” That is correct.


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