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[mark]

My other passion is model engineering,here are a few pictures of my  aircraft tow tractor complete with working hydraulics for the cab raise and jack legs,working hinges on cab doors and opening bonnet and access hatches,by the way i used to build these 60 ton babys for a living.

[Damien]

Great work    What scale/size is the model ?
Damien.

[Martin (Admin)]

WoW! Impressive!

A couple of questions please.....

Why does the cab need to be raised?
What are the jack legs for?
60 tons! was there lots of added lead weights around the chassis?
Are the real things diesel-hydraulic, deisel-electric or diesel-mechanical?
What engines do they have?

PS. Do you love or hate the latest Cadbury's advert?

[alan colson]

Martin
When I first saw the Cadbury's ad, I immediately thought of the first week at Terminal 5
Alan

[mark]

Hi
 Model 2 foot long by 10 inch wide,I'm unable to remember the exact scale at the moment but i do have it wrote down somewhere.
The cab is made to raise to aid vision when reversing up to a aircraft nose wheel to connect the drawbar,get this wrong and damage the aircraft and you are looking at a repair bill into the millions,saying that you would only usually couple up to the rear of the truck when doing a long tow,most used is the front of the tug when pushing the aircraft back off the stand.
Jack legs are fitted for easy maintenance to lift the wheels clear of the floor and also in case of a puncture when the chassis lands on the floor and it is not possible to get a jack underneath.
Yes 60 tons , chassis built from 120mm plate in three sections then bolted together to weigh 21 tons,the angled plates in between the front and rear wheels are ballast weights total 10 tons ,rear ballast weight when fitted 4 tons ,wheelarches 60mm and 100mm plate 1ton each,wheels and tyres 1 ton each plus engine,gearbox,axles etc
This particular model is diesel-mechanical powered but we did do a different fully battery powered tug.
The engine   V10 twin turbo air cooled 15 litre Deutz unit
Zf automatic gearbox
Kessler axles
4 Steer modes  Front wheel steer ,Rear wheel steer ,4 wheel steer ,Crab steer all selectable from the cab
 4 wheel drive with atop speed of 30 mph and a turning circle smaller than a Vauxhall Astra.
Dead weight drawbar pull 80 tons ,in reality you can push a fully loaded 747 400 on a little above tickover.

Yes i love the cadburys advert as it brings back some very happy memories of building these vehicles.

[HS93 (RIP)]

Any chance of some more pictures of the underside of the model and some of the mechanism you are using for the lifts etc, very nice where are you getting the wheels?

Hs 93

[mark]

Thank you
I have a friend who owns a engineering company and is going to machine a set of wheels on one of his CNC lathes.

[HS93 (RIP)]

have you decided on power for it and What was the running gear off ? Axles hubs etc the reason I ask is I am a fan of working in brass and have just got the plans (of sorts)for a ww2 jeep that I want to build at about 12th scale. so an looking at how to get tires that may be the right size then decide the scale proper..

Peter

[mark]

Hi
  The main power to drive it will be a 54 turn lathe motor 540 size for lots of torque,not too sure what size motor to use for the hydraulic pump as yet batterys will be a custom made pack to sit in the chassis.
The axles came out of a Tamiya TLT  monster truck and i have kept the original hubs on the axles,gearbox from the same.
The scale was decided pretty much by the tyres available at the time which had to look very similar to the real things.
Brass is a great medium to work with,one piece of advice buy yourself a multiformer from Chester Machine Tools it cuts ,folds and rolls up to 12" long i couldnt have built mine without one.

[Martin (Admin)]

Found this on YouTube -  a point of view must of us will never see.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QJ-uP18NkA&feature=related

  What the red 'flag' still on the front leg?

....Also, when a pilot arrives at a new airport for the first time and they tell him 'Go to gate 23,
     how does he know where gate 23 is?

[OMK]

"What the red 'flag' still on the front leg?"

Dontcha know? That's the frequency penant flag. The whole thing is radio controlled!

[Martin (Admin)]

 

[Martin13]

Found this on YouTube -  a point of view must of us will never see.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QJ-uP18NkA&feature=related

  What the red 'flag' still on the front leg?

....Also, when a pilot arrives at a new airport for the first time and they tell him 'Go to gate 23,
     how does he know where gate 23 is?

Martin,
Big Red Flag - Nose Wheel Locking Pin - With strain on nose gear by push back tug - nose gear COULD collapse without it. Red Flag indicates pin is still in place. The Ground Engineer ( the one with headset and long lead plugged into panel on nose gear) will remove this
pin when push back completed and take several step backwards, hold pin with flag up -  indicating to crew that pin has been removed.
I did this task for many years but not nice on a cold, wet and windy evening.

Air crews have charts of airports on their route. airport gates are indicated on charts and also painted on taxi-ways..

Martin doon under - Retired Aircraft Engineer

[Martin13]

My other passion is model engineering,here are a few pictures of my  aircraft tow tractor complete with working hydraulics for the cab raise and jack legs,working hinges on cab doors and opening bonnet and access hatches,by the way i used to build these 60 ton babys for a living.

Mark,

Brilliant Build and a BIG one. I walked alongside these beasts many a time - Tug Drivers have the best job on the Airport

Martin doon under

[Mr Andy]

Mark interesting change from model boats, I hope you will post a picture of the completed thing.
 
Andy

[funtimefrankie]

Mark interesting change from model boats, I hope you will post a picture of the completed thing.
 
Andy

Then some pictures of the matching plane