Vulture 2 paintjob: Four-year-old nipper triumphs

It has been emotional, but we reckon we've finally got a Vulture 2 livery which satisfies all the requirements for a spaceplane paintjob. For those of you who've inexplicably missed all the excitement, we recently invited readers to suggest liveries for our beautiful vehicle, seen here in its raw state with Low Orbit Helium …

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Excellent selection!

I tip my hat to the little felt-tip prodigy who came up with it (it's the roo leather Barmah again (the hat, that is))

[Anonymous Coward]

Proudly British yet still whimsical and reflective of the El Reg inner child.

[Neil Barnes]

Thunderbirds are go!

An excellent choice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Distress?

The Union Jack is upside down, or the wrong way round - probably.

[Lester Haines]

Re: Distress?

It's actually inside-out, due to design constraints. If the spaceplane hurtles from the sky and kills a swan, we'll probably be dancing the Tyburn jig.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Distress?

So does the Queen own Spanish swans too? Or are you considering all possible long-range flightpaths?

Enquiring minds need to know.

Top job on the scheme though, well done all round.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Distress?

The Queen owns the whole world, and therefore all swans. She's just too polite to mention it.

I think it would be fun if she re-styled herself as Queen of France though. It was George III what dropped it, and he was bonkers, and it would be amusing to see the French reaction.

[Steve Davies 3]

Empress of France

There is one buried in good old Farnbough (of Airshow fame) along with Emperor Napoleon (no not that one) and their son.

http://www.farnboroughabbey.org/

She was very good friends with our Queen Vic.

Hey, it is Friday and almost Beer O'Clock.

[Financegozu]

Re: Distress?

Nah, it's Chuck Norris who owns the world. He just permits the Queen to do some ruling ... ;-)

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Distress?

The queen could have Chuck Norris any day of the week. When she takes off the ceremonial gear, and puts on her fighting crown, she's the terror of Glasgow's toughest pubs...

[OzBob]

Re: Distress?

It's common knowledge inside the Royal Protection Unit that HRH was part of the SOE during the war and not the Transport Corp. Apparently Micheal Fagan was a bit of a mess after she had worked him over for daring to sneak into her room.

[ItsNotMe]

Re: Distress?

No...you're simply looking at it wrong.

[Shades]

Top Marks El Reg!

You've definitely done the right thing. Congrats to Ariadne.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Thank you El Reg

It's very kind of you to say that I deserve some slap-and-tipple...

[Ketlan]

Excellent. Well done y'all.

[Tom7]

I see my Iranian-nuclear-programme-themed submission was ruled unpublishable.

[chrismiller]

All very nice, except why the red canard? Ariadne's oriignal felt pen creation is less jaring.

[Lester Haines]

It's a practical consideration. The rudders and the canards have to be painted, for articulation reasons. I take your point, though.

[Tony Haines]

In that case I think you should paint the ears green.

And it it means they have to be green for the flag side too then so be it.

[Peter Simpson 1]

Araiadne FTW

I think it would be a nice gesture if you could send Ariadne a signed photo of the actual craft, painted in her design, along with a team photo.

It may not mean as much to her now as it will in a few years...

Well done, SPB, for encouraging the next generation!

[Lester Haines]

Re: Araiadne FTW

I think something can be arranged.

[aregross]

Bravo! Well Done!

[Anonymous Coward]

Given the sort of tipples favoured around these parts

Perhaps you should save the slap on the back until after..?

[Pirate Dave]

Good work. Looks quite grand.

[Cliff]

Thumbs up

This is a wonderful paint job, looking forward to seeing it in action :-)

[Eddy Ito]

A fine colour plan for a fine plane

Well done. I'm a bit surprised the vulture logo is missing but I suppose it could easily be on vertical rudder surfaces that don't show in the plan view.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A fine colour plan for a fine plane

"Plausible Deniability" is the phrase that comes to mind...

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Well done El Reg.

Looks great and congrats to young Ariadne and all who entered.

[ecofeco]

Love it

See title

[ecofeco]

Almost forgot

Great all around designs by everyone.

[Splodger]

It's an excellent choice!

Beers all round (except for Ariadne).

[Anonymous Coward]

Congrats to the little artist!

I probably should have put forward a Cylon design scheme of some kind, but maybe I can save that for the next SPB project...

[Destroy All Monsters]

I hope this won't be an Ariadne 5.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ destroy all monsters

Yeah, I guess everyone involved is lucky the girl isn't named "Atlas".

(Typical Atlas booster launch shown!)

[Mark 85]

Beer all around for you chaps and a root beer for Ariadne. (Wouldn't want to feel left out of the celebration now, would we?)

[psychonaut]

love the crayon

But surely we need some tits on it somewhere?

[Andus McCoatover]

Floats my boat

(My boat's the one with a nice grin on it...)

[Graham Perrin]

Yes. Thank you.

I can visualise it, three centuries from now, looking for the creator.

So. Looking ahead. Can we arrange for Ariadne and James to have some prepared answers for their creation?

[Faye B]

Excellent Choice

Need I say more. Well done.

[johnwerneken]

Excellent

Go for it! Apparently 4 year olds have their art potential available, not buried by things alleged to be more necessary.

[Sarah Balfour]

Hmm...

Far be it from me to suggest impropriety - or cast nasturtiums (as my mum's late dad used to say) but isn't Stelios derived from the Greek for 'star' and wasn't there a Saturn mission called Ariadne...?

Or am I being overly-cynical again...?

Oh and whilst I'm at it - Reg, could ya PLEASE make the site mobile-friendly...? All I have in an iPod and, being autistic, I'm not blessed with a very long fuse, and it's beginning to tick me off.

I'd be here posting shi... I, er mean, "erudite and urbane witticisms formed from my unique viewpoint" more often if that was the case...

[Cybershaman]

Reflects the playful young state of humanity

I think it is a wonderful idea to incorporate that child's art into the spacecraft. It's fun and playful and thus reflects where we are as a species as we take yet a few more precious "first steps" into the cosmos...

[JackStirchley]

Symmetry is wrong

The one side is apparently to remind one of the Union Jack so how come the design is symmetrical?

[evs]

Regardless of the livery

Regardless of the livery, you have GOT to have a Ms. Lohan "pin up girl" on the side.