Smiles sweat and tears. Part 3

At the conclusion of the European Heritage Days and to discuss the dismantling of the Radom of the Orly tower on September 19, 2019, with Mr Jean Jacques GROUSSEAU Mayor of Athis Mons we have decided to organize this September 19 its installation on the site of the Museum.

But before telling you about this beautiful evening, here is a short retrospective in images of the reassembly.

Once the apron is finished, the installation of the Radom can begin…

First of all we had to take out the lower part assembled this summer under the Barnum.

Having no crane or helicopter to help us, the work was ultimately simpler than some thought.

Based on the experience of the builders of the pyramids who used rollers to move the blocks of stone weighing several tons, we simply used two small "BO" (small trolley with 4 wheels where the tail shoe is placed). a glider to facilitate its movement) which are regularly used by gliders.

The total weight of the radome is around 350 kg this half posed no problem to be moved only by two people.

First step: get closer to the protective wing of the SA for a few days.

An hour later, thanks to the help of Tony, Fausto and JP, the base is firmly fixed to the slab with 10 large studs, each capable of retaining a weight of 2 tons when pulled out.

From this moment we were able to start assembling the triangles taken from the previous blank assembly of the upper part which was sheltered under the Concorde.

Day after day the result becomes more and more encouraging.

It is seriously decreasing on one side and you can see the progression on the other.

Fifteen days later all that remains is to clean a few plates and reassemble the last triangles, once modified the upper triangle will be used to access the interior of the Radom for future inspections and maintenance.

At the top of the Radom originally the plate below with this opening was used for ventilation, unfortunately this element was not delivered to us after dismantling.

We will soon install a photovoltaic plate which will power a red obstacle light and which will become mandatory for phase 2 of our project.

Let's go back now to this beautiful reception organized by the Mayor to thank the representatives of the DGAC, our architect, the representatives of the companies who worked on the construction of the slab and the repair of the damaged parts during the dismantling, the guests, the elected officials of the city, without forgetting our president Françoise PAYEN and the members of the association.

On behalf of the association, the vice-president greeted all those present, including Mr. Robin REDA, deputy for Essonne, Mr. Paul DAMM, curator of heritage in the Ile de France region and author of a superb book on Orly, Philippe Van LIERDE General Secretary of the Airitage association, Gérard MORIN Representative for Essonne of the Heritage Foundation.

Above all, he wanted to thank all those who made it possible to obtain the Radom from the DGAC, to obtain the permit to build the slab and in particular our young member Joseph who devoted 15 days of his vacation before joining the championship as a volunteer from the world of glider aerobatics in Issoudun, and Tony, an engineer student at ESTACA who wanted to carry out his work internship within the framework of our museum, both of them carried out most of the assembly.

Mrs Ariane GILOTTE Head of the Memory Mission of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Mr Jean Jacques GROUSSEAU Mayor of Athis Mons cut the ribbon for the access road to the Radom and the future "AERODOC" Documentation Center which will be the second phase of our project.

While waiting for this ambitious new project, all our guests went to take a closer look at the Radom which will find its new life here in our museum, and why not one day a new function.