Re the freight door conversion, prior to that the RAF had full width freight containers made that were just deep enough to fit through the pax doors.
There were several early incident's such as the one you describe which I personally witnessed the results of, Lockheed were if I remember correctly aghast that the RAF would actually rebuild it, looking at the sheared spar sections once removed and the wing damage, I couldn’t believe it still flew.
The aircraft wouldn’t fit into base hangar so a temporary dock of scaffolding and plastic sheeting had to be erected outside the doors to extend the hangar and enclose the tail of the aircraft. When towing it back to the hangar the tug driver had to be convinced as the gear had spread and damaged the structure, including the wing skins, the tugs used to go under the nose of the aircraft when towing, hence the drivers worry.
The other one about the same time was a BA Eng crew that blew a section out of the bottom of a wing during a run, holding in a CB and a seized hyd pump resulting in an explosion was if i remember correctly was the cause.
That one was repaired on the apron, plastic sheeting was thrown over the wing and weighted down forming a “tent” which was heated with aircraft ground heaters.
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Last edited by NutLoose; 16th Apr 2022 at 00:33.