Aviation Logistics Knowledge Lecture – Contour Type

Hello everyone, in this issue, we are going to talk about a problem that everyone has been concerned about: Contour. He said it means “the shape of the ULD”. ULD we are very clear, what does the shape of ULD represent? How are different contours different? That’s all for this issue.

 

First of all, let’s review the concept of ULD. For those who have forgotten, you can read previous articles, or click here to take a time machine to go back and check it immediately. A ULD, if it is a board, usually has only one bottom plate, and the goods will be placed on this bottom plate. But what shape should the goods be built in? Is it a square? Or an oval? What dictates how this shape should be?

 

In fact, these questions have very simple and intuitive answers. The contour is determined by the outer shape of the aircraft. We know that the cross-section of an aircraft is an ellipse, so this determines the shape of the cargo hitting a board. The reason is very simple: if it exceeds, how can it be loaded into the plane? And the contour we mainly discuss today is the contour of MD. Friends can also click here to take a time machine to review the concept of MD. As a result, the rough schematic looks like the following cross-sectional diagram (the soul painter is back):

As shown in the figure, the blue line represents the outline of the cross-section of the cabin. You can see that it is an ellipse, right (don’t say it can’t be seen), and then the green line represents the board placed in this position. Above, the shape that the cargo can hit. It can be known that the goods are attached to the shape of the cabin. This chart shows the approximate status of a contour when the machine bay is loaded and side by side. Oh, and we haven’t explained what side by side is. Don’t worry, we’ll explain it now.

 

Side by side is a ULD arrangement of MD, and the corresponding arrangement is called single row. In fact, this expression is very intuitive. Side by side means placing two ULDs in a row, and single row means placing only one ULD in a row. The little friends here may be confused. Is the shape of the cabin not fixed? Why can there be a difference between one row and two rows? Friends, you can recall, does ULD have two sides, short side and long side? Then if the long sides are placed in the aircraft cabin using the horizontal and vertical pendulum methods, will there be two different arrangements? Or circled? Then we picture above:

 

As shown in the figure, when the long side is arranged horizontally, it is the arrangement of single row, and when the long side is arranged vertically, it is the arrangement of side by side. And this different arrangement constitutes what we often refer to as “ULD Combination” – ULD combination arrangement. All CBA production personnel and stowage personnel must formulate their plans according to this ULD Combination, and each plan will have its corresponding ULD weight limit, height limit and angle of closing height. What? Another new concept? What is a closing angle? Hey, little friends, don’t worry, we’ll talk about this concept later. Friends who often read my articles know that I will not miss the concept explanation, because I have always emphasized that in our industry, we must not only know how, but also know why. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify these conceptual things. But for now, let’s not talk about it, we will come back to explain later in this article.

 

So the soul picture you see above is a cross-sectional view of the side-by-side arrangement. Is it clear now? Then let’s look at another soul picture:

 

Looking at it now, I know that the above picture must be a cross-sectional view of a single row arrangement. Similarly, the blue line represents the outer outline of the cabin, and the green line represents the contour shape. Seeing this, if you can ignore the incongruous proportions drawn by my hand, is the concept of contour much clearer?

 

The hand-drawn pictures above are for everyone to have a general understanding of the contour first. The real contour diagram is not like this, but it will be very abstract, so I resisted the pressure of being complained by everyone, and drew it by hand first. At the same time, you can see that the green part is an irregular geometric shape, which is also a shape created to maximize the use of space in the limited cabin. You can imagine how much effort everyone has made in order to make good use of every inch of space. And this is very important for airlines or agents, because every inch of space is a waste of money, and it cannot be wasted in vain.

 

Of course, in some special cases, space can only be wasted. For example, some overweight goods are placed on the board. Even if there is space, other goods cannot be added, because it will be overweight and cannot be balanced. Or, for some fragile goods, other goods cannot be superimposed on it, so it will also cause a waste of space. For the latter, we should pay attention that it is very likely that the airline will charge us pivot. Hey, why is there a new concept? The so-called Pivot can be simply understood as: the minimum loading weight of an ULD. For example: if an ULD stipulates that the minimum load is 3000kg, but due to the characteristics of the cargo, it can no longer be loaded when it reaches 2500kg, then the airline has the right to charge us a fee of 3000kg. Because this operation is essentially a waste of space, and that space always has to be paid by someone. At this time, the agent should be very careful, and must make it clear to the customer in advance, otherwise you will be charged 3,000kg of freight from the customer with a 2500kg bill of lading, and the customer will not buy it. This is why those odd size, or oversized goods, are difficult and expensive to load.

 

So, let’s now take a look at how the regular contour pictures are displayed and what information is there. After seeing the previous picture of the soul, I believe that when you look at this formal picture again, it will be easier to understand.

 

The above is a schematic diagram of a Q6 contour (also called P6P). Q6 is the name of a contour, and the contour in the picture above applies to the B777F. As shown in the figure, you can see that the lengths of the ULD baseplates are 233cm (96-inch board) and 307cm (in fact, it should be 318cm here), which matches the size of a PMC baseplate. If it is PAJ, the short side will become 213cm (that is, 88-inch board). Of course, the length here is the width of the plate buckle between the edge of the plate and the cargo has been subtracted, so only the length that the cargo can hit is displayed. Then there are many different lengths on the picture. You can know the picture I drew by hand. 135cm means that the first layer of goods can only be punched up to 135cm (if it is an 88-inch board, the first layer can be punched) to 191cm), 294cm means that the height of the entire ULD can be up to 294cm, and 100cm means the width of the highest layer of goods, which can only be up to 100cm. In this way, you can see if it corresponds to the shape of the hand-drawn drawing just now (although the proportions I drew are seriously wrong).

 

Then let’s look at a more intuitive picture:

 

We put the goods on it, so it should be fully understood, right? Let’s see, can all the numbers match up? It’s just that the size of the bottom plate here does not show the length of the goods that can be hit, but the length of the entire ULD. When we look at the contour in the future, we can also make up the picture with the goods in our own minds, and we will know what kind of board shape we are actually going to hit.

 

So in the final analysis, the so-called contour is what shape the goods can hit. At the same time, within the specified range, the more you fight, the more substantial this ULD will be, and the cheaper the price per kilo will be. Speaking of which, did you have a better inspiration for how to quote in the future, and how to understand other people’s quotes? I hope so. After all, all prices must be based on the theory of actual operation, not out of thin air. The agent expects that a ULD can hold more, and his cost per kilogram will be lower.

 

By the way, the concept of a closed corner has not been explained just now. Because only after you understand the concept of this contour, can you understand the concept of the angle. In the picture above, 135cm is a corner position. What he meant was that when the cargo reached a certain height, it had to be stowed away and could no longer be built up. Look, is it easy to understand now? Therefore, it must be emphasized again that we must understand the basic concepts of air transportation and master these basic knowledge. Don’t always ask how, ask why. One thing, knowing how can only solve this thing, but after knowing why, many other things can be solved.

 

Here, I should also mention a word. If you encounter something you don’t understand, don’t feel embarrassed to ask. My last immediate supervisor taught me one thing: there are no stupid questions in this world, only stupid answers. It’s a very common thing to ask if you don’t understand. Don’t be embarrassed. If you don’t ask today, you won’t know tomorrow. Might as well find out now. My immediate supervisor is a very wise man~

 

Now that everyone has figured it out, let’s move on. The above mentioned is the contour of Q6, in fact, there are many different contours, such as Q7, C2 and so on. The difference between these contours is that the shape is different, the height is different, and the applicable models are different. We don’t need to memorize every one of these things, just remember the most common ones, because most of the contours can be found online. As the saying goes, there is no limit to learning. We can browse more of these different shapes when we have time. I will do the same myself, and there will also be some contours that I have never seen before. When you see it, you can enrich your knowledge base. .

 

Here are a few more practical examples for your reference, I hope it can help you.

 

Q6 for A300F, A330F, A380F, B747F, B777F, DC-10F, L1011F and MD11F:

 

Q7 for B777F:

 

Q6 for B777F:

 

P1P for 757-200SF: