Bricks now Boarding: American Airlines in LEGO Bricks

OK, Apologies! It’s been a little quiet around here recently the studio has been rather busy with one rather large project!

This week, American Airlines (our client) has launched the exhibition that we’ve been working together on for the last 6 months. Since we started, I’ve been back and forth to the C.R. Smith museum, which contains all of the American Airlines heritage. Dallas isn’t terribly local to Edinburgh - but visiting the museum gave me the chance to not only see how the exhibition would fit in with the rest of the museum - but also examine the archive. Essential when you’re building a model of something that’s 50 years old! As usual - I started asking questions about exact design elements that no-one knew the answers to! Well, at least if the information was ever written down - it would be in the building! Anyway, I’m getting head of myself. Lets start with just 1 thing. Read on for a hidden, behind-the-scenes, look at what we’ve built - and how!

The Globe mounted on its' pedestal during installation

The Globe

This is easily the single biggest and heaviest exhibit! We needed something as a large centrepiece that would attract everyone in an already busy museum. We also wanted something that would inspire people to build their own creation. It also needed to reflect the global nature of American Airlines today. So, what better to build than a globe?

The globe took A. LONG. TIME. to build. Really, much longer than we’d anticipated. I should have remembered that a sphere has the lowest surface area to volume ratio of any solid - but I didn’t! What that means in real terms though, was that it used alot of bricks! Our globe is about 90cm (3ft) across) and almost perfectly spherical.

Why almost? Well, we wanted to make sure that the globe - which weighs around 150Kg (300Lbs) wasn’t going to roll away! So a small slice was taken off of the bottom to make sure it has a solid base. Through this base (and in fact the whole globe) run what are effectively the biggest bolts you’ve ever used. Each are 100cm (3ft and a bit) long! These keep it safe and secure on display.

Once all of the countries were complete, the American Airlines logo was added on separately. We wanted to make it really stand out, so it’s embossed slightly. Standing just 1 stud out from the surface really makes it pop. We created a second layer (with a slightly larger diameter than the rest of the globe, then prepared this for printing. To get the colour graduation of the AA logo, the logo was printed in multiple steps on our UV printer. Multiple steps because the logo too large to print in one go!

40 tiny airplanes, all ready to install.

You are probably wondering how we got a 90cm, 150Kg globe from Edinburgh to Dallas. Well, when your customer is an airline - you find out exactly whats possible! Whilst building the model, we made sure to include 2 slots all the way through. This meant that we could insert two wooden beams in order to lift the globe (by forklift) to help pack and unpack it.

Next, the globe is strapped down to a pallet (hard - it literally would roll away otherwise!) and pallet collars are placed around it. This keeps it extremely safe - even though it would be handled with care!

Once on-site, there was one final finishing touch to add. The planes! I designed a very simple plane, from only about 10 elements. Completed with a printed vertical stabiliser (the tail), they immediately looked the part. Now all that was necessary was to drill 40 little holes, then pin and glue all the planes into place. These planes aren’t going anywhere!

If you look closely though, you’ll notice not just American Airlines planes - but also their OneWorld partners. Oh, and did I mention that all the plane locations are real ones? We worked with the scheduling team to decide exactly where to place each plane - and which way it should be flying!

Next let’s take a look at the 5 cities that were created. These are displayed in a very unique way!