Cargo Compartments Maximum Package Size Calculation Methodology

[nobbyknownowt]

Hey up!
Anyone out there know of a PC program or excel formula or some such that can deal with maximum package sizes.
ie how big you can go to get it through the door without bending it??

I would figure theres a calculation out there somewhere that will take the contour and door size into account but after many serches I can only find reference to a $60 document that perhaps might give the answer if I wasn't to tight to pay for it.

The alternative involves cutting out paper shapes and I think we must have moved on from that!?!?:}


ta
Nobby

[Onan the Clumsy]

It's more complex than that I'm afraid. The opening is one thing, but volumetric analysis of the package is quite another. You might have a two foot by two foot door but you couldn't fit a lamppost in there cos it was too long for the compartment.

A better example would be a package for that door that was 18 inches square in cross section, but only say 30 inches long. Even if this was short enough to fit inside the compartment, you might be unable to get it inside because of the diagonal nature of its passage through the opening, not to mention that the compartment may have irregular sides.

So I think there'd be a lot of variables to consider to find the max and a better method would be to reverse the calculation and take a series of standard package sizes and empirically build a table of which cargo areas in which aircraft each package was acceptable.

Are you going to consider weight as well? :8

[nobbyknownowt]

Hi Onan
I know its complicated thats why I want to know if theres something out there before I set about it.
Unfortunately the firm I work for does not have a standard package size, the commercial pressure is to get the biggest bit onto the smallest aircraft each time. (Will it bend being one of the first questions!!!)
I'm from the old school of making a scale model of the hold and door then scale model of the piece and seeing if it will fit. But seems to me that there must be loads of people doing the same thing all over the world, it so time consuming, surely its been computerised by now.
Have previously seen graphics programs where the box moves in and out of the hold but want to bring it down to math.
If you can input the known ie door size, distance from back wall floor and profile the top there should be a way to calculate the turning point on the roller mat for anything with a given length, height and width.
Am not interested in the weight of the item for this. Having the ground kit to move stuff is not a problem.
cheers
nobby