Who's afraid of the drill? If he moves an Airbus, he can also assemble your kitchen
The Parkside screwdriver, a Lidl brand, towed a 300-tonne Airbus A380 and won the Guinness World Record.
2' min read
2' min read
In the hangar of Lufthansa Airlines in Munich, under the watchful eye of a Guinness World Records judge, a 12-volt battery-operated screwdriver from the Performance series dragged an entire Airbus A380 for the - small but historic - distance of 143 centimetres. Not 143 metres, nor kilometres: centimetres. But the point, of course, is not the distance. It is that that drill weighs 1.5 kg. And the plane, almost 300,000 kg. The protagonist of the feat is called PPBSSA 12 BF24 A1.
The challenge numbers.
First some numbers: the A380 can accommodate over 850 passengers and weighs over 300 tonnes empty. The jumbo's four engines each develop around 32,000 hp. In comparison: the Parkside screwdriver weighs only 1.5 kg and with its 12 V battery reaches a power of 80 Nm at 1500 rpm. Usually with 12 V it has just enough power to fit an Ikea bookcase without overheating or fatigue. So how did he do it?
Marketing tech, engineering and common sense.
The drill model in question has 80 Nm of torque: a respectable value for the do-it-yourselfer, but obviously not enough to move 300 tonnes directly. However, it can drive a winch, which, with the right gearbox system, can move enormous loads. The Technische Universität Darmstadt carried out a feasibility study to ensure that the force of the drill was sufficient to start the system. So: it's not magic, it's applied physics, levers, reduced friction and a sprinkling of marketing. So, in summary? Yes, a 12-volt drill can technically 'move' an Airbus, but only under ultra-controlled conditions, with tailor-made mechanisms, and for very few centimetres, which also means smooth surfaces and well-inflated tyres. The force to make it 'roll' is much less than that required to lift or push it uphill.
