What an idiotic piece of planning...

Congratulations must go to BAA for the world's most shortsighted piece of planning.

The stunning new bridge at gatwick airport connecting the north terminal to the new pier 6 stand is a brilliant piece of architecture. It is elegant, impressive and will, I'm sure, be great to watch aircraft from, particularly as you walk over the top of them.

Unfortunately, it's too low. Careful planning means that a Boeing 747-400 can pass beneath with 2 metres of clearance from the top of the tailfin to the bottom of the bridge. Of course, that means that an A380 is liable to lose the top of its tailfin (which is 4.5m taller than the 747-400) should it attempt to pass beneath.

Was this a desperately smart move, given that the bridge is opening in the same year as the A380 will take its first flight?

Picture: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/794504/L/

 

Oh dear Who ever was in charge of that is in trouble

 

i wonder if it was partially funded by boeing.....

 

Perhaps they could get all of the SLF/Pax to stand at the back of the plane when passing under the bridge....

 

Blackburn council installed a new bus network through the town centre, this involved major construction and took a couple of years to complete. Upon completetion they realised that the bus lanes were too narrow in many areas and they had to widen the entire lot! Pillocks.

 

And lets not forget the french naval aircraft carrier, pride and joy of the entire french arm forces, state-of-the-art, equipped to the highest standards, cost hundreds of millions, runway too short for the planes too take off and land.

 

LOL yes there was one a bit like that in peterborough, they dug up a major roundabout at the bottom of a road with two or three big schools on, smoothed the road out nicely etc. then made the roundabout too tight for any busses to get round. Nice one.

 

...and then there's the COUNTLESS railway-related screw ups, such as the new electric trains to replace Mk1 slamdoors on the Reading->Waterloo route; aircon/electric doors/etc etc - drew too much power from the rails and so most of the fleet had to be delayed before it could be commissioned, because some dumbass can't add.

And then there's the new trains that wouldn't fit in the platforms - where was that, East Coast Mainline or something?

That's just plane crazy (ha ha ha ha!)

 

Whereas in neighbouring Burnley, the horses and carriages are the same size today as they've always been.

Congrats on your progression to the semis btw. I take it you will be glued to your radio at 1.30pm to discover which team will have the honour of knocking you out.

 

I hadn't heard that one. Hilarious.

Does that mean they've got to buy British Harriers (or don't we make them anymore)?

 

You mean the Boeing AV-8B?

 

I try and avoid that particular part of yorkshire but I think laying new cobbles is alot easier than changing a modern network.

Knocking us out.....we shall see, we shall see.

 

the french buying one of our products! Think they ended up extendin the runway, probably with some 4" x 2" and mdf. What I want to know is how they found out, presumably they tried to land a plane first......"oiu mon cherie zee plane just droppy of zee end"

BTW is that business in your sig yours??

 

The problem with the aircraft carrier was when the French Navy tested their E-2C Hawkeye AWACs (these are the relatively large, twin turboprop aircraft, by far the heaviest plane that will have to land on a French carrier, and as such the one which required the most length of carrier deck to stop it properly) on it.

The aircraft could land on the carrier perfectly safely, but it was a *very* tight right turn for it to taxi off the landing strip of deck, after the aircraft had landed successfully. So they lengthened the deck by about 4m as they feared a pilot might accidentally taxi over the edge if he wasn't paying attention and didn't turn tight enough! Take off was never a problem though.

 

Yes. Witness the full horror

 

What's with the bare feet?

 

whose the ugly dude?

They look very nice, whats your background if I may ask?

 

Looks like a dustsheet T-Bone!
hurhur

 

.............the tumbleweed rolls quitely past..........

 

My brother-in-law arranged a photo-shoot at his university in Germany (we'd just launched at the High End Exhibition there). There was a backdrop which came down like a projector screen and then formed the ground as well. I wasn't allowed to have spikes under the speakers or to wear shoes on the backdrop.

I was in engineering and marketing. I was the director of a company that made induction heating generators, mostly for the welding of tube and pipe - 200kW plus of valve power. The company was taken over and I found myself surplus to requirements. I had been building speakers as a hobby, so...