The UAE is in the headlines again this week. Fascinatingly, in Abu Dhabi, the restructured bones of Einstein, a 23-metre long, 4.5 tonne vegetarian Apatosaurus who is 140 million years old, is being set up to provide a free educational opportunity at the airport.
Meanwhile, at the gateway to Heathrow Airport in London, Dubai's Emirates' airline has unveiled a 24-metre long, 26-metre wide, 45 tonne model of an Airbus A380; the largest-known aircraft model in existence according to The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Abu Dhabi states that the summer sees thousands of families passing through the airport and this is an excellent opportunity for them to see the first significant prehistoric dinosaur skeleton assembled in the Middle East, get the lowdown on his vital statistics and have a picture taken with the relic without having to check-in or make a journey through the airport.
The Emirates' A380 model has replaced the once famous Concorde at Heathrow's Emirates Roundabout. The roundabout, it is said, is one of the most high-profile advertising sites in the UK and approximately 25 million passengers a year will get to see one of the most iconic images of 21st century air travel.
While the world's largest aircraft model will very likely stay in place at one of the world's busiest airport terminals until it is usurped by something bigger and better, the mammoth Einstein will be on exhibition from next week until the end of September.
It will be auctioned off globally with a reserve price of $2 million (Dh7.34 million), with anything above 20 per cent going to preserve endangered Arabian wildlife.
Einstein was transported to Abu Dhabi from Dakota in the USA in ten cargo crates and assembled by a team of experts in less than a day.
The one-third scale Airbus model was flown in ten component parts from Los Angeles, where it was constructed, to London where specialist teams have been working for the last 20 days to launch Emirates' "first" A380.
The XPRESS team is chuffed at the fact that both Einstein and the A380 model were unveiled at the same time as we feature the real-life pilots who will fly Emirates airlines' first A380 to New York on August 1.
If you are one of those getting on that inaugural flight, then write in and let us know how much you paid for that pleasure. If you were invited for a free educational opportunity aboard the largest airplane known to humankind, please write in and let us know how to apply.
Nirmala Janssen
editor@alnisrmedia.com
