What Temperatures can you get in Cargo Holds?

[Grizzlly]

Suppose a 50 million dollar Picasso painting, or any valuable painting for that matter, shipped by air. Whats the hottest and coldest that "may" occur in Cargo holds? Do not want anything to happen to the paint!!

Somebodies routinely shipping fine art, air cargo. Assuming; normal routes, London, New York, Geneva ect, nowhere extreme like the Sahara or Siberia. And standard, Boeing or Airbus, Cargo hold or Cargo only aircraft. Obviously the arts packaged properly.

Presuming Cargos holds are normally in the + 7 to +25 range, hotter closer to bulk area where animals are carried. But whats the extremes that occur?

I'am a professional pilot, been asked this question and reaching out for some educated help. Thanks in advance!

[deltahotel]

Depends on the type. An old 757Sf is fairly crude although the main deck can achieve 18-30 ish. A modern 767 is more sophisticated, so in our main deck 2-30deg. The lower decks have a range of temps available. Anything needing specific temperatures will show on the NOTOC 'special load' section. Normally fruit etc, though occasionally animals, birds or fish.

[Intruder]

In the 747, the cargo hold temp control can be turned off. In that case the temp can get to -20 or so at altitude, and above outside temp on the ground. A small amount of heated air flows via the Aft Cargo Heat, but that is along the floor of the Bulk area aft of the cargo floor.

With temp control ON, the range is 4-29C. However, depending on the starting temperature on the ground, it may take an hour or more to stabilize.

[deltahotel]

Sorry, should have asked what would be a good temperature to aim for for old paint on old canvas?

[Grizzlly]

Interesting, thank you very much for the info. An education. Its fully, all the shippers and freight forwarders give you answers that they think you want to hear, what you have to do is ask the people who are actually the ones in control....

For paintings, or sculpture, its not so much the 'good' temperature is, more trying to avoid quick fluctuations in temperatures or humidity (or both). Paintings/sculptures are made of different materials, acrylic, oil etc and these contract and expand at different speeds to the wooden stretchers they are on. In extreme cases this can cause cracking and the paint to fall off. Not good in a high value shipment...

So.... my questions are:

On the average common cargo route i.e Schiphol - NY, what percentage of aircraft are old eg 757Sf vs a modern 767?
Do cargo pilots leave temp control off? Or turn it off? If so, why?
When you say a range of 4-29C or 2-30Cm do the pilot choose/select this temperature (I understand on aircraft with NOTOC they can and do select a zone to control), but when this doesn't occur do you just spin the dial? Or does it depend on where you are taking off / landing etc?

There is so much art flying about that often freight forwarders will not put it on the NOTOC list as the cost of the shipment goes up...

Many thanks for your help.

[MarkerInbound]

Usually main deck cargo temperatures are are set to something comfortable because main deck temperature can affect cockpit temperature. On my type, 744, lower hold temperature control is normally off because there is an additional fuel burn for running air through the lower holds.

I've had couriers ride along with artwork before. They seemed more concerned about the loading and unloading process than the temperature. The artwork was carried on the main deck.

[parabellum]

I was once informed that my cargo, (B747F), was more valuable than the aircraft and crew put together! We were carrying the major part of an art exhibition that was going overseas for a while. It would be a rather stupid act to deliberately under declare the value of a cargo in the hope of reducing costs. The cargo will be covered up to normal policy limits for cargo, as stated, by the carrier, but the owners would be expected to arrange any additional cover that was required.

[deltahotel]

Thanks Grizzly - all interesting. Humidity is fairly constant and pretty low, possibly 10%. Temperatures are pretty stable regardless of type. I don’t know the mechanism whereby a load gets ‘special load’ status on the NOTOC, but I’d say if you want a specific regime then best get it notified.

LongHaul routes will be bigger and more sophisticated ac.

Generally I tend to put everything midrange unless there’s a good reason otherwise. It sounds like quite a lucrative contract so a freight company would want to comply with climate criteria.

I reckon any of the big companies (dhl, fedex, ups, lufty cargo etc) would all do a good job. Obviously as part of the big red and yellow machine I’d like to think we’d be the provider of choice!