Emirates has released a behind-the-scenes account of the Aircrafted Arsenal Crest, a 2.4-metre illuminated sculpture built entirely in-house by Emirates Engineering from upcycled aircraft components (including cargo tracks, floor panels and roller elements) and flown to London by Emirates SkyCargo in a purpose-built crate.
AN ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT BUILDING SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT FLY
Emirates has published a behind-the-scenes account of the construction of the Aircrafted Arsenal Crest, following the sculpture’s unveiling earlier in August. The 2.4-metre illuminated piece was designed and built entirely in-house by Emirates Engineering teams, with fifteen specialists completing it in 34 days. The accompanying film shows the team cleaning, cutting, curving, machining, riveting, assembling and painting aviation materials into the finished emblem.
The materials are drawn from the airline’s own operations. Components used in the build include cargo tracks, floor panels and roller elements taken from cargo operations – the fittings that secure and move freight inside an aircraft hold. Cargo tracks in particular are structural extruded rails designed to take load in flight, which makes them well suited to forming the frame of a sculpture of this size and weight, and gives the piece a genuine provenance rather than a decorative one.
The exercise sits within a category of work maintenance and engineering organisations rarely get to publicise. An MRO department’s output is normally invisible by design. It is an aircraft that returns to service on schedule. A project that uses the same machining, forming and finishing skills to produce something that will be seen by a stadium full of people is unusual, and the decision to build it in-house rather than commission a fabricator is what makes it an aviation story rather than a sponsorship one.
GETTING IT TO LONDON
Once completed, the sculpture was packaged in a custom-built protective crate and handed to Emirates SkyCargo for loading into a freighter departing Dubai for London Stansted. Emirates notes its cargo arm’s experience handling specialised consignments ranging from advanced technology to ancient artefacts. An outsized, irregular and fragile single item is a distinct handling problem from either bulk freight or standard palletised cargo: it cannot be stacked, cannot absorb compression, and the crate must transfer all handling loads away from the object itself. The installation is now in place at the Directors Box and Diamond Club entrance at the Emirates Stadium.
The Emirates and Arsenal partnership began in 2006 and has been extended to 2033, with Emirates continuing as the club’s front-of-shirt, training kit and stadium naming rights partner.
Source and Images: Emirates
