How Cobalt Delivered a 747 Flap and Slat to Australia in Under 24 Hours

When a Boeing 747 Freighter in Australia sustained damage to a flap and slat, the components needed to be replaced before the aircraft could return to service. Thousands of miles away, a serviceable replacement flap was available at Cobalt Aero Services’ facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The challenge wasn't finding the part. It was figuring out how to get the very large 747 flap from Arkansas to an AOG aircraft in Australia and doing it immediately.

Standard Wasn't An Option
Because of its size, shipping a flap isn't as simple as putting it in a standard crate and booking the next available flight. Normally, the replacement flap would be crated horizontally for transportation. But the Cobalt team quickly identified a major problem: packaged conventionally, the flap and its crate would be too large to fit through the cargo door of the aircraft available to transport it to Australia.

With an aircraft on the ground on the other side of the world, waiting for another transportation option wasn't the answer. The Cobalt team needed to create one. Their solution was to completely rethink how the component would be packaged. Rather than shipping the flap horizontally, the team designed a custom crate that would securely hold the component vertically, allowing the packaged flap to fit through the aircraft's cargo door for transportation.

Hot Springs To Australia In Under 24 Hours

Once the solution was identified, the Cobalt team immediately went to work. The serviceable replacement flap was available at Cobalt's Hot Springs facility, so the team's focus became getting it packaged safely and transported to Australia as quickly as possible. Cobalt designed and fabricated the custom vertical shipping crate at our Hot Springs facility on an AOG basis. The solution had to account for the size and geometry of the 747 flap, protect the component during international transportation and stay within the dimensional limitations of the aircraft carrying it.

There wasn't time for a lengthy design and fabrication process. There was a customer with an aircraft on the ground thousands of miles away.

Hot Springs To Australia In Under 24 Hours
From the time Cobalt received the initial call until the replacement flap physically arrived at the aircraft in Australia, less than 24 hours had passed.

In that window, the team identified the transportation challenge, developed the vertical shipping concept, designed and fabricated the custom crate, secured the flap for transportation and helped get the component halfway around the world. The replacement flap was installed, allowing the Boeing 747 to return to service.

The First Class Way in Action
Sometimes solving an AOG problem requires locating a difficult-to-find component. Sometimes it requires highly specialized repair capabilities. And sometimes, the part is sitting in your facility ready to go, but you have to figure out how to get it through the door.

That's where responsiveness, experience and a willingness to approach a problem differently make the difference. The Cobalt team didn't stop when the conventional shipping solution wouldn't work. We found another way, then designed and built what was needed to make it happen.

That's The First Class Way. Understanding the customer's problem, bringing the right people and capabilities together, and doing whatever it takes to deliver the solution.

Sometimes For this customer, that meant taking a serviceable Boeing 747 flap sitting in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and putting it beside an AOG aircraft in Australia in less than 24 hours.

One oversized component. One custom solution. Less than 24 hours from Arkansas to Australia. And another aircraft back in the air.