Commentary: It was the video that mesmerized millions last week. But the owner of the transport company tells me it has to make the astonishing turn almost 200 times.
This isn’t going to work. Or is it?
Where there are open spaces, we take wind turbines for granted.
Sometimes, though, things are a little different.
A video posted last week to Facebook showed Scottish transport company McFadyens trying to maneuver a 198-foot wind turbine on a trailer around a 90-degree turn on a tiny road in the Scottish Highlands.
The world was mesmerized. More than 4 million people have watched it. Praise for the driver and his companions was enormous.
How could he not only get it round the bend, but also actually keep the truck in the right lane (or the left lane, as they call it in the UK)?
How was it possible that it missed hitting something by seeming inches, as it slowly edged it was around a corner whose designers had surely never envisaged such a vast machine trying to navigate it?
So I contacted McFadyen’s owner Charles McFadyen and wondered how much practice such a maneuver might involve.
See how Mcfadyens from Scotland makes a 90 degrees right turn with a 60 metres blade with railings on both sides on the bridge. Great to see the possibilities of the SWC Super Wing Carrier. Without, it is almost impossible to do such a transport. More information about the Super Wing Carrier: https://www.nooteboom.com/trailers/super-wing-carrier/?hilite=super+wing+carrier
It turns out the answer was « plenty. »
« For this project we need to complete the same turn 198 times, » he said.
Won’t this make the drivers a touch demented? The precision required seems astonishing.
« Coming from Campbeltown in the West Coast of Scotland, we are used to these type of roads, but for sure we only employee the best drivers around, » McFadyen told me.
The trailer is made by Nooteboom in the Netherlands and McFadyen said that his company, founded in 1901, simply has the expertise for these things.
So the next time you see wind turbines just standing there, trying to do some good for mankind, consider for a moment the effort it might have taken to get them there.
