BUILDING A 1:1 SCALE BOEING 777 FOR BRITISH AIRWAYS

David Jefferis reports
There’s nothing like a speeded-up movie for revealing the secrets of how things work, and this three-minute movie is an excellent example. Of course, what you don't see is the immense amount of hard work that went into the making of it - but no matter, the result is well worthwhile.

Triple Seven
The subject of the movie is Boeing’s big-twin, the 777 ‘Triple-Seven’, described as his ‘favourite seat’, by an ex-BA friend of mine. The real thing has seats for more than 300 passengers, and one version - the 777 200LR - has flown more than halfway round the world non-stop. More than 860 Boeing 777s are in airline service, with the order book tally so far at 1148 aircraft.

Boeing 777 models
The 777 is more widely represented in the ready-built market than in construction kits, and there’s a range of them in various scales available here.

A call for interesting airliner kits
Having said that, for 1:144 scale enthusiasts, the Hasegawa 777 in Thai markings assembles into a fairly decent model. However, here’s a call to manufacturers to put some imagination into the subject, to offer something more interesting to the airline enthusiast.

For example, how about more cutaway models, with seats and freight decks on display? And while we’re at it, how about some crew and passenger figures to sit in those seats, and cargo pallets to fill the hold?

How about a section of tarmac for a mini-diorama setting? And some vehicles to populate that tarmac, such as refuelling tankers and baggage handling trucks, complete with personnel?

And in these days of cheap electronics, surely it would be easy enough to provide a lighting set and sound effects...