Remember the ship Carnival Splendor. I know you do. In fact the whole world knows of it. It even made it to South Park. The ship is STILL laid up in California after the engine room fire, crippled the ship off of Baja. Well, it just got kicked out of/ sailed from San Francisco.
Initially, she should have been sailing by now, but after initial surveys, it was determined that damage was more severe than initially thought. One of the big projects was the replacement of an entire diesel generator. This involved cutting a hole in the side of the ship in order to slide the old one out and the new one in. The first step is getting it there. In the ship yard when build, they simply rail it from the manufacturer, or sometimes sail it over. In this case, time is of the essence. They FLEW IT IN.
The former Soviet transport aircraft Myria (The Anatov an-225) now works special lift projects including flying cruise ship generators. Coming from someone who works in logistics, flying is the trickiest kind of moves. There is a ton of calculations for stability and MTOW that goes into it, along with mountains of paperwork.
Anyways, Carnival’s Head Cruise Director/Brand ambassador John Heald, post photos on his blog.
