Bay Crane Assists Space Shuttle Enterprise into Retirement

Oct. 23, 2013- German transportation-equipment supplier, Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft's customer, New York-based, Bay Crane was awarded by NASA the job of moving the U.S. Space Shuttle Enterprise from JFK International Airport to the Air and Space Museum in New York. Bay Crane went with Goldhofer's THP/SL heavy-duty modular trailer system to handle the load.

The Enterprise traveled by road on Goldhofer axles for just under a mile before being loaded onto a barge for the journey up the Hudson River to the floating museum in the form of the retired aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

“In the last thirty years, space shuttles have frequently been loaded with the help of cranes. We were the first to handle the loading and offloading with just a single crane. That’s something we are very proud of,” says Kenny Bernardo, vice president of operations at Bay Crane.

A Boeing 747 carrier aircraft first gave the Space Shuttle a piggyback ride to JFK. With the help of a specially developed lift frame, the Bay Crane team safely loaded the big bird onto the Goldhofer axle lines. The Enterprise has a deadweight of 70 tons, an overall length of 122.2 ft., a wingspan of almost 78.7 ft. and a total wing area of almost 2690.9 sq. ft.

“You can always trust a Goldhofer system and we played safe with our Goldhofer heavy-duty axle configuration,” Kenny Bernardo explains. A total of 24 THP/SL axle lines and a 230-ton low-profile deck were used to move the retired Space Shuttle from the airport to the Hudson River.

“For us, the Space Shuttle assignment is the crowning moment in our successful history. Our THP/SL heavy duty modules have taken the industry by storm and are rightly seen as the world’s most reliable heavy-duty axles. The fact that our customers consistently go for the Goldhofer standard of quality for such prestigious projects is the best reference we could have,” says Stefan Fuchs, CEO of Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft. 

Bay Crane of New York and Goldhofer of Memmingen enjoy a long-standing partnership. “We have handled plenty of contracts with Kenny and his team, and together we have mastered all the challenges. We seem to spur each other on to still greater achievements,” says Horst Häfele, Goldhofer sales director heavy duty modules.