Reg reader's nipper takes felt pens to Vulture 2

We're progressing nicely towards selecting a lively livery for our Vulture 2 spaceplane, although following publication earlier this week of the first batch of reader suggestions, Stelios Zacharias got in touch to insist "my four-year-old can design better than that". The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) fan wrote …

[Harvey Trowell]

Can you put the poll up now please?

I wanna vote for this one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Can you put the poll up now please?

I prefer the white version below it.

[Amraj]

Re: Can you put the poll up now please?

Prefer the White:- Jony Ive is a reader of El Reg?

[Code Monkey]

That's the best I've seen so far. Slap a few Reg stickers on and I reckon you have a winner.

[Dazed & Confused]

I genuinely think that this is the best one so far.

I know you probably can't print this exact design onto Vulture 2, but maybe you should just give the girl a bunch of permanent markers and let her loose on the real thing?

It will look completely different again, but it would definitely have a certain something.

(The other designs are just a bit 'meh'. Hard to describe without sounding pretentious - but they are all kind of obvious and predictable.)

[MrWibble]

Re: I genuinely think that this is the best one so far.

Great idea - gets my vote.

[Lottie]

Yup

Looks interesting, looks like it won't blend in to the background (there will always be a stand out colour) and rather stylish.

Think I'll vote for this one.

[Ketlan]

Kids, huh?

It'd be a bugger to do in real life - but it's got my vote!

[Alister]

Stelios Zacharias...

That's not the bloke that owns EasyJet is it??

I wouldn't take design advice from someone who paints aircraft like he does :-)

Joking apart, that gets my vote as well, excellent

[Tweetiepooh]

No "go faster" stripes or flames

Bravo, unique and will match the pilot.

[poopypants]

Outstanding!

With regard to the issue of content, the disjunctive perturbation of the spatial relationships brings within the realm of discourse a distinctive formal conceptualisation, while in juxtaposition the internal struggle of the dynamic signifier verges on codifying the eloquence of this work.

This masterpiece receives my vote.

[Hayden Clark]

... to counterpoint

the surrealism of the underlying metaphor.....

[Alister]

Re: ... to counterpoint

Oh freddled gruntbuggly, Thy micturations are to me As plurdled gabbleblotchits On a lurgid bee.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ... to counterpoint

Well, yes Alister, we already got it. And everyone else can [censored].

[Otto von Humpenstumpf]

This needs to happen...

If only to make the little girl happy. :)

And with a name like Ariadne, she's all but guaranteed that LOHAN will find its way back to earth.

[Ottman001]

I suspect the launch date for LOHAN is being put back because El Reg is now going to:

1. Come up with a design for a set of super sized felt tip pens.

2. Put us commentards on bacronym duty.

3. Poll for the best suggestion.

4. Test the concept.

5. Send finalised pen design to the 3D printers.

I'd like to get my bacronym suggestion in first: SCRIBBLE: Surface Coat Rendering In Big Bold Lines of Emulsion.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. The whole project started in July 2011. Let's just launch the thing and move on to a new project.

[Code Monkey]

FELT TIP

Freely-Expressed LOHAN Tinted Trim In Pen

[Graham Marsden]

Re: FELT TIP

Painted Aerial Navigator Tones In Expressive Scheme

[Splodger]

S.A.D.B.A.G.s

Splendid Artwork Done By A Girl (small)

Message ends+++

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Agreed...

Apart from Ariadne being a wonderful name. Part of this could be about fostering more interest in science in the young (I'm sure paint schemes count) and what better way than to let a 4 year old see her design blast off from the face of the earth.

If she doesn't win the final vote, at least send her a Vulture central mug, or a badge... or even the soon to be retired LOHAN playmonaut (if he makes it back).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Agreed...

Have you got any idea how many thousands of letters Lester receives from 4 year olds every day? El Reg would go bankrupt if they sent them all mugs.

[Colin Brett]

Re: Agreed...

"Have you got any idea how many thousands of letters Lester receives from 4 year olds every day? El Reg would go bankrupt if they sent them all mugs."

Not all Reg commentards are 4 years old. Although the mental age of some of them seems about the same.

Colin

[Martin Budden]

Re: Agreed...

Well I'm 3, and I post here because it makes me feel cool to hang out with all the big 4 year olds.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

It's not quite poetry, but...

The very worst spaceship colour scheme in the universe died along with its creator, Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex... in the destruction of the planet Earth.

[Stevie]

Bah!

And here we see human tech in action, complete with the "baby out with the bathwater" approach to everything.

40 years ago it was shown very effectively that a nice paint job was not worth the weight penalties incurred in proper spaceships.

Spray away, idiots, and shave another few hundred feet off the ceiling of LOHAN with every swipe of the can.

[Soap Distant]

Re: Bah!

A few hundred feet altitude is as nothing compared with the crime that this superb artwork wouldn't be on LOHAN!

Full speed ahead with this or I'll cancel my subscription (what?)

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

[Stevie]

Re: crime that this superb artwork wouldn't be on LOHAN!

I have to admit you make a compelling argument there. I will happily stipulate that paint is indeed not detrimental to the mission profile if and only if the distinctive livery depicted in the article is used, preferably applied by the originating artist.

Otherwise I stand by my whining.

[Lester Haines]

Re: Bah!

Actually, visibility is the issue here. So, these idiots will sacrifice some altitude for the ability to be able to see the aircraft.

[Stevie]

Re: visibility is the issue here

Eh? I thought the spaceplane was fitted with SOA GPS findability. Seeing the thing in flight is a pipe dream no matter what color you paint it.

[Triggerfish]

Re: Bah!

Yes Stevie but the thing that gets us trying these things in the first place is having some soul, so spray away, its cool and it'll make the kids day.

[Buster]

Quick sign the kid up before NASA gets to her. If aliens are on their way they better be soaking themselves in vats of purple dye or they will not be allowed to be our overlords.

[Stelios Zacharias]

In the public eye

So, while I have been trying to figure out whether to enjoy the attention or worry about the consequences of exposure, I have given Ariadne some more blanks. She was upset that I took her original drawing away to digitize it and says she will not be giving me any new designs.

Ariadne is also fan of both the Hello Kitty in space effort and the Toy train in space effort, so I am sure she will be following any future Vulture 2 efforts with me, whatever paint-job is chosen.

[Lester Haines]

Re: In the public eye

Good stuff.

[Shagbag]

Not even Damien Hirst or Banksey can claim that one.

I don't believe their artwork has ever gone into Space.

Magnificent. :thumbsup: