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http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-ar...-grounded-aircraft-jeddah-reassembles-riyadh/
A technological feat
A TECHNICAL team of Saudi Arabian Airlines deconstructed a grounded airplane and transported it from Jeddah to Rhttp://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/saudia-team-strips-grounded-aircraft-jeddah-reassembles-riyadh/iyadh before successfully reassembling it.
Head of Saudia’s technical team Marwan Ghulam said the entire team of engineers and technicians had specialized in engineering and manufacturing airplanes.
“An airplane was disassembled in Jeddah and transported by land to Riyadh via Madinah and Qassim. The trip lasted for five days. The distance traveled was 1,013 km.
The aircraft was a custom-made MD-90 belonging to the special forces of the Ministry of Interior,” said Ghulam.
He said the airplane was stripped down at hangar 11 of King Abdulaziz International Airport where the Saudi Company for Aircraft and Engineering is based.
“The team that dismanteld the plane consisted of 20 engineers and technicians. They are all well trained and capable of executing any project. Using national resources is much cheaper than returning the plane to its manufacturer to do the job,” said Ghulam.
He said the project was a challenging one because the team had never disassembled an aircraft of such magnitude and complexity.
“We had to first practice disassembling on a miniature model. We usually disassemble airplanes to send them to land fill. The dismantled parts of an aircraft are normally not reassembled for use again. In this project, the airplane was expected to be intact after reassembly,” said Ghulam.
He said the team chose to transport the pieces of the airplane by land.
“Our biggest problem was transporting the wings. The maximum width of the highway is 8.5 meters. We had to trim the wings but we had to do it in a way that would allow us to reassemble it. Such a task was never carried out in Saudi Arabia before,” said Ghulam.
He said the team had to design four specialized vehicles to transport the wings and keep them intact.
“We also faced a problem with the height of the fuselage. The maximum height allowed on the road is 5.5 meters. The total cost of transporting the wings alone was SR1.5 million. We couldn’t cut the wings manually nor could we use laser because the wings were too thick and large,” said Ghulam. The team instead used a chainsaw, he added.
“Disassembling the airplane and cutting some of its parts took a total of 45 days. The airplane was divided into nine parts. The fuselage was transported on a special vehicle and other parts on trucks,” said Ghulam.
He added the weight of the airplane could was about 43 tons.
“The airplane was transported from Jeddah to Madinah on Nov. 17. The speed of the vehicles transporting the airplane parts did not exceed 25 km an hour. From Madinah the shipment was taken to Qassim and then to Riyadh, where it arrived on Nov. 22,” said Ghulam.
Ghulam said the technical team then traveled from Jeddah to Riyadh to reassemble the airplane.
A technological feat
A TECHNICAL team of Saudi Arabian Airlines deconstructed a grounded airplane and transported it from Jeddah to Rhttp://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/saudia-team-strips-grounded-aircraft-jeddah-reassembles-riyadh/iyadh before successfully reassembling it.
Head of Saudia’s technical team Marwan Ghulam said the entire team of engineers and technicians had specialized in engineering and manufacturing airplanes.
“An airplane was disassembled in Jeddah and transported by land to Riyadh via Madinah and Qassim. The trip lasted for five days. The distance traveled was 1,013 km.
The aircraft was a custom-made MD-90 belonging to the special forces of the Ministry of Interior,” said Ghulam.
He said the airplane was stripped down at hangar 11 of King Abdulaziz International Airport where the Saudi Company for Aircraft and Engineering is based.
“The team that dismanteld the plane consisted of 20 engineers and technicians. They are all well trained and capable of executing any project. Using national resources is much cheaper than returning the plane to its manufacturer to do the job,” said Ghulam.
He said the project was a challenging one because the team had never disassembled an aircraft of such magnitude and complexity.
“We had to first practice disassembling on a miniature model. We usually disassemble airplanes to send them to land fill. The dismantled parts of an aircraft are normally not reassembled for use again. In this project, the airplane was expected to be intact after reassembly,” said Ghulam.
He said the team chose to transport the pieces of the airplane by land.
“Our biggest problem was transporting the wings. The maximum width of the highway is 8.5 meters. We had to trim the wings but we had to do it in a way that would allow us to reassemble it. Such a task was never carried out in Saudi Arabia before,” said Ghulam.
He said the team had to design four specialized vehicles to transport the wings and keep them intact.
“We also faced a problem with the height of the fuselage. The maximum height allowed on the road is 5.5 meters. The total cost of transporting the wings alone was SR1.5 million. We couldn’t cut the wings manually nor could we use laser because the wings were too thick and large,” said Ghulam. The team instead used a chainsaw, he added.
“Disassembling the airplane and cutting some of its parts took a total of 45 days. The airplane was divided into nine parts. The fuselage was transported on a special vehicle and other parts on trucks,” said Ghulam.
He added the weight of the airplane could was about 43 tons.
“The airplane was transported from Jeddah to Madinah on Nov. 17. The speed of the vehicles transporting the airplane parts did not exceed 25 km an hour. From Madinah the shipment was taken to Qassim and then to Riyadh, where it arrived on Nov. 22,” said Ghulam.
Ghulam said the technical team then traveled from Jeddah to Riyadh to reassemble the airplane.
