Geoff Thomas
Some consolation for those who had wanted to see Eurofighter pirouetting in the skies over Dubai is a solid sterling-silver model of the aircraft which wings its way through a magical audio-visual programme on the stand of British jewellers Garrard in Hall B.
The model weighs in at around 13kg (28lb), has a 62cm (2ft) wingspan, and for those with a large bank balance, it's for sale- a snip at a cool quarter of a million pounds sterling (around $400,000), including all the technical wizardry!
Timothy Jarvis, Garrard's corporate division manager, says the model and the display are both unique. "We have been working on this project for more than a year now."
Powered by a combination of hydraulics and pneumatics - with a fully operating undercarriage - the model 'flies' in front of a back-projection screen featuring a four-minute computer-generated and real-flight film.
Produced with the help of British Aerospace, which supplied the technical drawings, the model took four months for Garrard's craftsmen to make.
Source: Flight Daily News