My employer sent me out of town for a trip to activate an airplane in the desert. We were to put this...
Onto this...
Yes this is a Pylon of a "Wide Body" that is parked in the desert. It takes a bit of time to "hang a motor" as we call it. This was part of the process..
Yes it is a cradle and the whole thing is raised by hand using hand cranks.
Well it was just a start. We would up being there for 2 weeks installing Thrust Reversers, Nose Cowls on Both Sides, and fan cowls and all the other little things that we had to do. Airplanes don't like to sit for over a year. Things leak. My employer parked a huge part of our fleet when Covid hit to preserve capital, and the climate is great for long term aircraft storage. Most of our planes are now flying but we still have planes parked but we are bring them back into service.
some pics...
With the restrictions, a lot of "Wide Bodies" are still parked by other carriers. Widebodies are B767's, B777's B787's A330's, A350's and I saw a couple of A380's out there, plus a bunch of Boeing 737's.
