The legendary flight of the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch is to be reenacted 70 years after its first rescue flight in the mountains took place. BAUBERGER AG picked the aircraft up from the museum.
Whenever a difficult task arises, Vicentini Transporte AG calls in the specialists from Bauberger AG. So it did just that when the time came to move, dismantle and reassemble an aircraft in November 2015. The Fieseler Fi 156 “A-97” was also known as the «Storch» (English: stork) because in flight, its landing gear legs hung down, making it look like a stork. It had hung in the aviation hall of the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne since 1965 (Verkehrshaus Luzern). For a unique outing, the «Storch» is to be taken out of the museum, made airworthy again and then after the anniversary flight in November 2016, returned to its well-deserved retirement.
The preparations began at mid-day, the actual work started after the museum closed its doors at 5 p.m. The Stork was hanging from the ceiling surrounded by other aircraft. The difficulty was to take it down with an ingenious chain hoist, turn it in the air by 90° and then move it laterally past the other valuable museum items such as a Fokker mounted on columns underneath the Stork. Senior partner Albert Vicentini: “The Bauberger employees were virtuosos in handling the lifting equipment.” Bauberger AG also came up with the chain hoist design.
By 1:30 a.m., the main work was completed. Then the wings and undercarriage were dismantled and loaded up. Before the first museum visitors arrived at 10 a.m., all signs had been eliminated – the only thing that remained was a vacant space where the plane had hung.
Vicentini and Bauberger have already moved a number of objects together, for instance in the pilot museum in Dübendorf (Air Force Center Dübendorf).
