RAF Wittering: Nuclear bomb loading crane

MATERIALS Rolled I-section steel joists and corrugated iron sheet.

EXTERIOR The structure is a fixed gantry crane spanning the access road in the form of two tripod frame columns constructed of rolled steel joists and braced with diagonal and horizontal angle-iron stiffeners. Linking the apices of each tripod is a heavier-section RSJ runway beam which supports the travelling electrical hoist, which at rest is housed in a cube-shaped casing clad with corrugated iron sheet and which is open to the bottom and towards the runway beam. It has a very shallow gabled roof, and at the bottom a triangular steel outrigger. Fixed to the upper surface of the runway beam is a lighting gantry and the electrical control box is fixed towards the base of one tripod leg.