Britain's Leading Trailer Manufacturer
The plane now arriving on the back of an Ifor Williams trailer is a DC3…bound for the rooftop of a garage!
In case the health and safety people get too excited it should be noted that is only the nose cone of the legendary aircraft being carried.
It proves however that just about anything can be transported on the back of the ubiquitous workhorse, Europe’s best-loved trailer.
This remarkable sight was snapped in Sater in Sweden, close to where its owner, businessman Kenneth Öhrn, 62, lives.
"I am going to put it on top of my garage so that I can sit in the cockpit and look out over my land," said Mr Öhrn, who believes his DC3 was built in the 1940s.
"I’m a private pilot and I fly a Boeing Stearman and a Tiger Moth. At first I will put some chairs and a table in the DC3 cockpit shell."
This conservatory with a difference was purchased by Mr Öhrn from a local museum which had no further use for it and with the thousands of Douglas DC3s around the world, spares are plentiful.
"I have a hangar for my aircraft and a large garage for my collection of cars, which are mainly American," said Mr Öhrn who runs an excavation business along with his son.
"I’m extremely pleased with my Ifor Williams trailer. It’s a LM167 with a gross weight of 3,500kg. I like its construction, especially the leaf suspension. I shall be putting my Tiger Moth on it shortly when I take it for a paint job."
Mr Öhrn flies his aircraft at airshows and displays and has flown his Tiger Moth – made under licence in Sweden in 1937 – at Woburn Abbey in England.
The photo of the DC3 was snapped outside the Järudds Automotive business. Mr Öhrn was showing his latest find to his friend and neighbour who runs the garage, which renovates classic cars and imports American cars.
"The trailer is great, my son uses a large Chevvy pick-up in our business and he’s rung me up to say he has broken down, so I will have to rescue him using the trailer."
The picture was spotted by Per Lindqvist, the Chief Executive of the Swedish firm, Trailer Imports.
He said: "One of our distributors posted this photograph of an aircraft fuselage on an Ifor Williams Trailer.
"We have had the distributorship for Ifor Williams Trailers since 2008. From my point of view having the distributorship for Ifor Williams Trailers in Sweden is like having the dealership for Mercedes in cars.
"We have worked very, very hard to establish the sale of an outstanding quality trailer in the commercial sector because this is where we think the future lies.
Trailer Imports has two offices in Sweden from which it supplies a network of 20 dealerships throughout the country and is aiming to expand the network.
Andrew Reece-Jones, the Design Engineering Manager at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: "The many and varied uses for our trailers is a constant source of amazement.
"They are designed to be a flexible workhorse but I must admit I never envisaged that one of our trailers would be used to transport the nose cone of a passenger plane."
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