Scenes from last Thursday’s maiden flight of Airbus’s new jumbo freighter – the Beluga XL – a jumbo freighter designed to ferry large sections of Airbus planes (up to 125 tonnes) to and from the company’s assembly plants in France and Germany.
The Beluga XL (the first of five such planes but not the first Airbus sky whale) now faces ten months of testing before going into commission.
Behold: an extremely well preserved 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale Coupe – one of 46 remaining examples of a lightweight, 1.8l, all-wheel drive, turbo and supercharger-equipped chunk of auto-angularity designed solely to win the fractious Group B World Rally Championship, which it did in 1986 before being banned from competition by the FIA.
Spoilsports.
Price on request.
A very impressive LEGO Mindstorms bridge-building rig constructed back in 2012 by (presumably off-duty but you’d never know) boffins at the Oslo And Akershus University Of Applied Science.
Behold the cute ’n’ chunky 1975 Fiat Campagnola 1107 SUV – first introduced in 1951 and based on American jeeps left by the US military after WW2, it’s as stripped-back and no-nonsense a runaround as any of its better-known backroads brethren.
Yours for a trifling €14,800.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 – a soon-to-be-released 1,290 piece model from LEGO Creator Expert series complete with ejector seat, rotating license plates, bullet shield, tyre slashers and front machine guns.
(€150)
Behold the Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept Aircraft – a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) short-hop ‘urban aircraft’ concept offering a glimpse of the auto manufacturer’s designs on the luxury aerospace market.
Supported by Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and the Rolls Royce aircraft engine company, the plane has a central propellor providing vertical lift with two smaller engines for horizontal motion.
Behold: the 2019 W.O. Edition Mulsanne – a celebration of Bentley’s centenary year and a modern tribute to the 1930 Bentley 8 Litre (the last car made under the direction of the company’s founder W.O. Bentley).
Only 100 will be made and each will have a sliver of the crankshaft from the founder’s personal car incorporated into its cocktail cabinet.
It’s how W.O. would have wanted it.
Behold: the 1981 Lamborghini Countach LP400 S Coupe – the unrivalled ground-scraping, ultrafuturistic supercar of its day, adorning bedroom walls since it first appeared in 1971.
During its 16 years in production, the Countach had many facelifts but this variant (of which only 105 were ever made) is considered to be the finest.
Fully restored with just 35,000km on the clock and currently taking bids at Sothebys.
