[EMM_386]

That is nowhere close to the biggest. Check out the Mi-26:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_IxNLNvrY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26

Even that is not enough. It can lift 20 tons, and the 40 foot containers on this ship are heavier than that.

[sn_master]

Wow, the Chinook looks so tiny in comparison to the Mi-26.

40ft container maximum weight is 67,200 lbs. Skycrane max payload is 20,000 lbs and Mi-26 is 44,000 lbs. But do you think all the containers are at max weight? The ones on top are the lightest and the helicopters might be able to help with them after all, or maybe we can find a way to use two helicopters per container.

http://containertech.com/about-containers/40-standard-vs-40-...

[Toutouxc]

> or maybe we can find a way to use two helicopters per container

Spoken like a true programmer :) That's incredibly difficult and dangerous.

[slifin]

Lol, Can we compose the helicopters?

[dkersten]

Split it into many micro-helicopters, each deployed and scaled independently?

[Sohcahtoa82]

I'm picturing a fleet of a few thousand hobbyist drones.

It would sound like a massive angry swarm of bees.

[sn_master]

And their batteries would all run out at once and we get the biggest non-nuclear 'splash' in history.

[rtkwe]

Can be heavier than that most won't be the max gross tonage. The biggest hurdle might be knowing which ones they can pick though. In not sure if the shipping company keeps the weights of every container on file somewhere.

[souprock]

It can lift at least 56.8 to 62.5 tons, depending on your definition of tons. The heavy containers have been placed on the bottom of the ship for better stability, leaving the lightest ones on top.

[CraigJPerry]

28 tons of that is the helicopter itself though i think?