Printable View
Ok so this is the third time that while I'm driving to work on I287 in Northern NJ that I see a tractor-trailer carrying a helicopter shrink wrapped in blue. Does anyone know if there is a manufacturer close by? I've also seen jet rudders being transported by tractor-trailers too. What's the deal?
Sikorsky is in Bridgport Ct.
Is it possible that these choppers are being transported to Bridgeport? I forgot to mention that the trucks are traveling North on I287. I also saw one of them traveling towards the Tappan Zee Bridge so it would make sense if they're going to CT.
I've been by the plant in Bridgeport/Milford. I used to drive by on the Merit Parkway and often almost crashed on the metal bridge while looking for choppers to my left! Those were the days!
There's also Agusta-Westland at PNE airport in Northeast Philadelphia.
Most of the time from experince Sikorsky will truck the choppers to the docks or the airport depending on how it is selected to ship the helicopter. We very routinely send helicopters out of JFK and EWR on freighters like Cargolux and others. It is more than likely a Sikorsky though going to which mode of transport I have no idea. We used to fly the Sikorsky choppers from south Florida up the coast over a two or three day period in past to JFK, set it down on the cargo ramp of the respective cargo airline that it was going out on, put it on one of the two specially designed pallets we own and than dismantle the chopper partly. The blades would go into long boxes, the nose cone would be wrapped, fluids drained out of the bird and a few other things. Than we would document everything and put all of the items on a scale for weights. From there we would load it to the plane. I remember being about 12 or 13 when we did this once and I went with my dad to oversee. We loaded an S-76 reg was TC-HMT onto a Cargolux 744 City of Grevenmancher or somthing like that was it's name. It flew from JFK to LUX than onto Istanbul. Later that night my dad and 3 Sikorsky engineers flew on a Delta MD-11 to someplace in Europe and transferred to Turkish and met the chopper in Turkey. My dad stayed for reassembly and the engineers stayed on site for about a month with the Turkish goverment which is where the bird was destined for. It is not all that uncommon. We have trucked choppers pretty far from the plant up on Conneticut as well.
>I used to drive by on the Merit Parkway and often almost crashed on the metal bridge while looking for choppers to my left! <
That's friggin hysterical. About 15 years ago I was up in that area doing some "exploring" for the
Sikorsky plant and I went over that bridge and almost did the same thing!!! :lol: