When one takes a trip.

The PANTHER is delivered to the most remote parts of the world, using every means of transport available to it.

On a cargo ship through the Amazon rainforest, the PANTHER has only experienced such a journey once in its 30-year history. Normally, new vehicles are delivered to customers by truck. But there are no roads leading to Leticia, in the very south of Colombia. The PANTHER therefore had to take the ship on the last leg from Puerto Asis. First downstream on the Rio Putomayo, then back upstream on the Amazon, hundreds of kilometers through the rainforest before it could start its service at Alfredo Vásquez Cobo Airport.

Pure adventure

Jungles, deserts, mountain passes, nothing can stop a PANTHER on its journey to its destination. If necessary, it even takes quite adventurous routes. In Bolivia, only one route leads from La Paz to the northeast of the country, and the first section, the Yungas road over the 4,650-meter-high Cumbra Pass, is among the most dangerous in the world. Three trucks were on the road here, each with a PANTHER. To keep them safe from each other, they were chained together at the steepest and partly unpaved sections and led over the pass road in a quasi convoy.

Shrink-wrapped in foil

A danger of a different kind had to be averted on the journey to Barrow Islands. The island in the northwest of Australia is a natural jewel that has to be protected from any contamination, e.g. by introduced seeds, grains, plant fibers, etc. The PANTHER for the island is a very important part of the project. The PANTHER for the island airport was therefore not only meticulously cleaned and disinfected, but also completely shrink-wrapped and shrink-wrapped before it was allowed to set off.

Once around half the world

Shipments halfway around the world start either in a European (Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Venice ...) or a North American seaport (New York, Baltimore, Tacoma, Los Angeles ...), depending on whether the vehicles were produced in Leonding or in Wyoming, MN. The most convenient way for the PANTHER to travel is on so-called RoRo ships, which it can enter and exit by itself. If this is not possible, it has to make do with cargo ships, as on the Amazon, and is lifted on board and unloaded using cranes.

Probably the longest sea voyage of all time brought the PANTHER to Christchurch, New Zealand. The vessels were at sea for more than two months before arriving in Lyttelton Port after 12,617 nautical miles (23,368 km, route via Suez Canal and the south coast of Australia). Not much shorter were the PANTHER to Auckland, also the voyage to the South Seas (Tahiti, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga ...) takes similar time.

On its own axis

By far the shortest route to the destination was taken by the two PANTHERs delivered to Hörsching Airport, not far from Rosenbauer Group headquarters. They covered the ten kilometers to the site of operation on their own axles. With special permission, this is possible in some countries despite an excess width of three meters - only the PANTHER 6x6 S has a width of 2.5 meters. In this way, for example, most of the PANTHERs were delivered to German airports, and they also drove to Warsaw or Marseilles on their own axles, as well as - with a short passage by ship in between - to Oslo and Athens.

Only flying is better

If there is no other way or if the vehicles are needed very quickly, the PANTHER sometimes takes the plane. This is what happened with the transport to Norfolk Island, 1,400 km east of Australia. Since there is no natural harbor on the entire island and sea freight can only be brought ashore by small auxiliary ships, the only means of transport left for the two PANTHERS was the airplane. They were loaded into a Boeing C17 Globemaster near Brisbane, the headquarters of Rosenbauer Australia, and flown directly to their destination, Norfolk International Airport.

The PANTHER also travels to the most remote regions of the world by air. The vehicle for Chile's Antarctic Aeródromo Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martín, for example, was loaded into a Lockhead C-130 Hercules in Puenta Arenas and flown to King George Island. In the ice-free southeast of the island, numerous countries besides Chile operate Antarctic research stations. The PANTHER for Mataveri International Airport on Easter Island also traveled by C-130. An Antonov An-124 was needed to transport the aircraft from Dubai to Central Asia, as three vehicles had to be delivered at once. They barely fit into the 36-meter-long cargo hold of the transporter.