"Slipstream"

It's 77 metres long and weighs 77 tons, but you don't know that when you see it  - it's Slipstream, by Richard Wilson, at Terminal 2, Heathrow. I took lots of photos ... it fits right in with my fascination with old armour and with how airplanes are built, especially the ones with fabric stretched over the wooden frame.

Here it is under construction, in Hull  - love those rivets, hinting at the structure underneath -

(via)

Nearly 78m long, and weighing 77 tonnes, this is the longest permanent sculpture in Europe, made from around 32,000 unique, digitally fabricated aluminium, plywood and steel parts. Construction was pre-fabricated throughout with 23 pre-made cassettes, each weighing between 3-4 tonnes, brought to site for installation. (via)

And here it is, or rather, half of it, as first seen on getting out of the lift - 

Another view, the whole thing this time -

You'll have to imagine the sounds of the planes taking off from the runway beyond the terminal, one every 45 seconds.

"The beginning and end are very different," Wilson says in this video; "it's like a journey." He talks about building Slipstream in this video.

The sculptor and his models (via)

Installation: a cassette is being craned into position (via)