Jumbo refueller for jumbo jets
Page 40
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by Tony Wilding • An exhibit which Officine Viberti Torino, SpA. would no doubt have liked to feature at this year's Turin Show (see pages 46-52) was an 80,000 litre (17,600gal) tanker semi-trailer which the concern is at present building for servicing giant aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Concorde. Instead, Viberti had to be content to show a. model of the trailer and its Lancia tractive unit next to a Boeing 747 to the same 1:20 scale.
While at Turin I had the opportunity to go to the Viberti factory to see the two tankers ordered to date under construction. My expectations that they would be huge were confirmed on inspection of one of the tanks in its welding jig. The 47ft 5in, long tank is of the max, section type with a width of 9ft 4in. and a maximum depth of about 8ft. When completed, the three-axle semitrailer will be used with a special Lancia 6 x 4 tractive unit and overall length of the outfit will be 60ft Sin. Overall height will be ,14ft which is an important dimension as the artic will have to clear the underside of the aircraft's wings with safety.
The rearmost of the trailer's three axles will be of the self-steering type and rated for a ground loading of 19 tons as compared with 18.6 tons for each ,f the two fixed
axles. The Lancia rear bogie will have a 27.4 ton load and the front axle 8.1 tons. Unladen weight of the complete outfit is estimated to be just under 29 tons and with 1 7,600gal of fuel weighing about 63 tons, gross weight will be about 92 tons.
The tanks themselves are single compartment designs with 20 baffles coinciding with the circumferential welds. Horizontal welds are staggered and the top sections of the tanks are made from 3mm thick steel with 4mm steel used below the horizontal welds. There are three manholes on the top of each tank with a sump on the underside and there are two connections for bottom loading. The 3in. kingpin is to be carried in a substantial fabricated assembly welded to the forward end of the tank.
All pumping equipment will be carried at the end of the semi-trailers making overall length of the units 51ft 7in.; the overhang from the centre of the three-axle bogie is 17ft Sin. The pumping equipment to be fitted will provide for a discharge rate of 3,800 litres per min (836ga1 per min) at a pressure of 51.5 p.s.i.