METOP-SG : The Very Low-Lands

Seven years in the planning, Chabrillac and Hermann Paule complete delivery of Airbus Metop-SG.

Some transport projects take days of preparation when others take months, perhaps years to finally take shape, and it’s always with as much passion and satisfaction that we attend their achievement.

The studies for routing AIRBUS DS containers through the Netherlands started several years ago. Indeed, if height is not one of the criteria that defines a special transport in France, that's not the case in the country of Van Gogh! It wasn't an easy task to find a solution as the Netherlands impose an overall height limit of 4.45 meters for convoys with the possibility of lowering it to 4.35 meters to go under some bridges.

in 2013 Chabrillac and Hermann Paule thought up the solution, thanks to Paule's hubhebelkesselbrücke trailers. A first operation performed successfully in partnership between Austria and France allowed Chabrillac to test and validate the solution.

At the end of 2018 Airbus Defence & Space announced the transport of a METOP-SG Satellite from Toulouse to the Noordwijk test facility.  With a 4.2 meters high container Chabrillac and Paule joined forces. A technical quality audit operated by Airbus in Paule's facility of Stuttgart approved, in turn, the solution.

After three months preparation in order to obtain authorisation and prepare technical elements, Paule and Chabrillac were ready for loading the meteorological Satellite at the Airbus facility in Toulouse.  thanks to the professionalism of the convoy crew and with the CNSM support, the truck crossed the ESA/ETS gate in Noordwijk on the appointed day to deliver its load which was highly-anticipated by the project teams.  Once more Chabrillac could proudly, with support of their German partner, honour their commitment before completing the return journey to Toulouse with the empty container.