Enhancement of Ground Handling Through Optimum Selection/Use of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) 911973

Advances in development of transport aircraft have historically paced modernization of complementary Ground-Support Equipment (GSE). This paper shows that a family of cargo on/offloading loaders, capable of servicing the aircraft's main and lower lobes simultaneously is more efficient and cost-effective than a single Cadillac-Type Super Loader that “can do everything.” The Air Force has recently awarded two contracts to GSE manufacturers to build and test two prototype Super Loaders. The winner is supposed to on/offload everything from a C-130 whose cargo deck is only three feet, three inches high to a B-747, whose main deck upper limit is almost 18 feet high, and all other standard-body aircraft in between like DC-8s, B-707s, as well as all of the wide-bodied aircraft lower lobes, whose door sizes and heights vary extensively.