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Ainscough Crane Hire’s Falkirk Depot has recently helped to put the finishing touches to Britain’s largest ever surface warship – HMS Queen Elizabeth – as she prepared for her sea trials.
Assembled at Babcock’s Rosyth facility on the Firth of Forth, HMS Queen Elizabeth is capable of carrying 40 aircraft and is the First of Class Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier.
Two Ainscough cranes – a 55t (Liebherr 1055-3.1) and a 40t (LTM1040-2.1) – were lifted onto the flight deck using a 500t (LTM1500-8.1) c/w 105t counterweight to undertake a contract lift, all planned by our onsite crane co-ordinator, Colin Jones.
Ciaran McNamee at Ainscough said: “It was quite remarkable to see the cranes in operation on the flight deck of the carrier. The scale of the vessel is vast and our cranes looked like miniature models in comparison.
“We have only played a small part in the getting it onto the open seas but we take a great amount of pride in the fact that there will always be a little bit of Ainscough sailing under the Royal Navy ensign.”
HMS Queen Elizabeth is 280 metres – almost 1,000 ft – long, 73 metres wide and displaces 70,600 tonnes. She is capable of reaching 25 knots and has a range of 10,000 nautical miles.
Built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, consisting of BAE Systems, Thales Group and Babcock , HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, are costed at £6.2billion.
