Chapman Freeborn completes giant delivery to Abu Dhabi
The global aircraft charter specialist’s Germany team utilised the giant Antonov AN-225 freighter and an additional Boeing B747-400F aircraft to deliver the time-critical cargo from Leipzig Halle Airport (LEJ) and Frankfurt–Hahn Airport (HHN) to Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) on 20th May 2016.
The AN-225 operation at Leipzig Halle Airport was closely managed by Chapman Freeborn’s project manager Christian Becker. The 16-hour loading process to manoeuvre 153 tons of cargo involved using the AN-225’s ramp-loading apparatus and internal winch, in addition to an external heavy-lift crane. The largest of the six pieces handled was a compressor weighing 79 tons and measuring over 14 metres in length.
Following the successful loading of the outsize cargo, the AN-225 departed and flew to Abu Dhabi via Cairo for refuelling.
At the same time, the closely-synchronised B747-400F operation at Frankfurt–Hahn Airport was overseen by Chapman Freeborn representatives, with a further consignment of nearly 80 tons of cargo successfully loaded and dispatched to Abu Dhabi.
The mammoth charter project required in-depth planning and precise preparation - including coordination meetings, site visits and pre-flight assessments of the cargo to advise on the loadability of the freight.
The design of the unique AN-225 is based on its smaller sibling the AN-124 - an aircraft type regularly used by Chapman Freeborn to transport heavy and outsize air cargo around the world, in addition to a variety of western-built freighters.
The six-engine AN-225 can carry payloads of up to 250 tons and was originally developed by Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s to transport the Soviet Union’s Buran spacecraft.
