� VENTURE 1 2007

A Boeing television commercial asserts doing the impossible is one of the things the plane-maker does best. It is a tradition shared by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, which showed its ability to do just that by shipping huge wing molds for Boeing’s stunning new 787 Dreamliner from the USA to Japan.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, scheduled to take to the skies in service in 2008, has been designed to be the most innovative commer-cial plane ever made by the plane-maker.

the single lArgest part of the Dream-liner, which has a radically lightweight design, is the aircraft’s carbon fibre wing – which is where WWL enters the picture. One Boeing sub-contractor makes the Dreamliner’s wing molds in Rockford, Illinois. The two giant metal molds, used in making the composite aircraft wings, measure an amazing 30 metres in length, 6.5 metres wide and 2 metres high.

The molds were first taken from the fac-tory by specialist truck to the WWL berth in the port of Tacoma, a journey of about two weeks due to restrictions and permitted times of moving in different states.

”Due to the size of these molds few ves-sels can handle this cargo either as lift on/lift off or as RoRo cargo,” says Robbert van Pelt, from Region Americas Trade department in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

”An added complication was that prior to the movement of the first mold, it was decided

to add a transportation skid under the mold to make the structure stiffer to avoid stress and possible structural deformation.”

Robbert noted that the skid almost doubled the weight of the cargo to 72 tonnes. In addition, the skid was smaller than the mold and could not be lifted by cranes together with the mold on top.

”It was clear to us that RoRo operation on 80 foot mafis with under-deck stowage was a better alternative than handling the molds with cranes on a conventional break-bulk vessel. So we proposed to jack-up, or lift, the skid and mold as one unit with hydraulics and then lower it on the 25-metre-long WWL mafi trailer.”

The size of the mold also meant that it was not possible to load them on to the same vessel. Manoeuvring them safely on board also placed huge demands on the skill of WWL’s deck crews. On one of the vessels, Mad-ame Butterfly, there was

less than one metre of free space between the sides of the mold and the vessel’s structure.

the molds Will be built in Irvine, California, and WWL’s local team are working with vari-ous parties to load them from WWL’s facility in Port Hueneme to Japan, starting in April 2007. Why make WWL a preferred partner? A spokesperson for the client said: “We have always found WWL to be professional and cooperative with good ships, good service, good schedules and many trade lanes.” susAnnA W. Ahlfors

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the boeing dreamliner is a family of three airplanes providing up to 330 passengers with a better flying experience on journeys as far as 1�,000 kilometres, using 20 percent less fuel than today’s planes of comparable size.

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“ it was clear to us that roro opera-tion on 80-foot ma-fis with under-deck stowage was a better alternative.”

Special, ultra-careful handling was needed to transport the huge wing mold used to help give the boeing dreamliner its eye-catching shape.

VENTURE 1 2007 �