From a flat tyre on a taxiway to a collapsed landing gear, we supply KUNZ recovery equipment sized to the aircraft types you need to cover, so a blocked runway is back in service fast.
Recovery planning starts with what has happened to the landing gear. Each level adds equipment to the one before it.
The most common incident. The landing gear with the damaged tyre is pulled onto a platform and secured, and the aircraft is moved off the runway or taxiway.
The aircraft has left the paved surface. It must be debogged and towed back without overloading the landing gear, often over soft ground.
The aircraft has to be lifted and levelled before it can be moved, and the failed gear replaced by a trailer for the tow.
All solutions come in different sizes or set sizes to suit different aircraft types, with a wide range of accessories.
The gear with the damaged tyre is pulled onto the platform and fixed securely, so the aircraft can be cleared quickly. Sizes cover all nose and main landing gears.
A large dolly (for example for a B777 main gear) is too big for the nose gear of smaller aircraft, so an additional small dolly is recommended.
Load cells, round slings, shackles and digital indication equipment in an aluminium case. Set the permissible towing load to get a visual and acoustic warning if it is exceeded; peak load is held in memory.
Increase the load-bearing capacity of soft ground. Without them the gears dig deeper during towing until the towing force needed exceeds what the landing gear may take.
Placed easily and operated even on soft ground. The surface only has to be flat and free of obstacles.
Lower initial cost than lift bags, but they need a truck-mounted crane of sufficient capacity positioned next to the aircraft.
One basic trailer with two exchangeable transition kits. Fuselage kit: swivelling turntable with width-adjustable wedges. Wing kit: variable-distance frame for height and a tiltable platform pre-set to the wing contour.
Both level the aircraft. The difference is what has to be in place before you can start.
| Recovery lift bags | Recovery lifting slings | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | Higher | Lower |
| Extra equipment | None beyond the bag set | Truck-mounted crane with sufficient capacity |
| Ground conditions | Works on soft ground; surface must be flat and clear of obstacles | Crane needs an access route and a safe base close to the aircraft |
| Preparation off the runway | Path for towing the aircraft back | Towing path, plus crane access road and crane platform |
In most collapsed-gear incidents only one landing gear is severely damaged and needs replacing. The KUNZ recovery trailer covers exactly that case cost-efficiently.
An aircraft that loses more than one gear is rarely fit to fly passengers or freight again, and such incidents are very rare, so equipment built for them is seldom economically viable.
Equipment is pre-selected by the aircraft types each solution has to cover. MSM Tempus coordinates the specification and assists with acquisition.
