Crew member checks front tires
Edward standing by main landing gear
Runway maintenance
Main landing gear bearings
November 18, 2000 - A communication satellite built at Lockheed in Sunnyvale, CA. is loaded onto a giant "Russian" Antonov AN 124 cargo plane to be transported French Guiana for launching. My son (also Edward - pictured below) had spent some months environmentally testing ("shake and bake") the space craft.
For information about the Antonov AN 124 click here.
Each clickable image below will display a larger (50 K byte) image.
First we look over the aircraft
|
Crew member checks front tires |
Edward standing by main landing gear |
Runway maintenance Main landing gear bearings |
And a crew member checks an engine.
He said that the engines were rated at
50,000 pounds of thrust each - not bad when the aircraft was designed and constructed.
(The latest engine approved for the Boeing 777 has a rated thrust of 95,000 pounds.)
Crew member opening engine |
"Open wide" |
"Hmmmm" |
Closer view |
There were some containers of launch support equipment.
The first was a big one
Is that BIG container going to fit into that little airplane? |
Look, the aircraft has a crane! |
The aircraft's crane starting to lift and pull. |
And a pair of smaller containers of support equipment.
First of a pair. This ought to be easy! |
A close up |
And the second. |
End view. |
Lots of room. |
Some shots of the interior.
Crane details |
Crane operator |
Ladder to crew quarters. (They had sleeping bags.) |
And last, but not least, the space craft container
Space craft container arriving |
Space craft container (side view) |
Space craft container continuing to aircraft |
Loading the space craft container onto the Antonov
Lining up the space craft container |
Ready to lift and pull |
Get the "low-boy" carrier out of the way |
and now to tie it down. |
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