Heathrow Airport Needs Tightrope Walkers Just to Change Its Lightbulbs

Heathrow ’s Terminal Five was designed to be a soaring , light - filled tribute to the wonder of flight . Five years into its life , though , 60 percent of its lightbulbs are incinerate out — because there ’s been no secure or price - effective room to change them . Now , official say they ’ve found a solution : acrobat .

harmonize toThe Telegraph , Heathrow functionary began examining , uh , unusual alternative to the payoff after cherry red pickers usually and other specialized car used by electricians prove to be too expensive or plainly unsafe . rather , they ’ll be retain the help of a “ Cirque du Soleil - way ” company that specializes in super - high tightrope walking . More than 120 substructure above the trading floor of the terminal , these acrobat will supersede every individual lightbulb in the 120,000 - light bulb array that blanket architectRichard Rogers ’ soaring ceiling .

It sounds like an uttermost oversight : Did n’t anyone on the design team think about the damn incandescent lamp ? In fact , this is far from the first representative of architectural nobleness trump hardheaded issues . A whole industry has been born out of raw structures that are unmanageable to keep blank : From the ceiling of Daniel Libeskind ’s Denver Art Museum , which is rumored to be impossible to scavenge , to anew breed of window washerswho must useadvanced mountaineering skillsjust to scavenge the façades of buildings like London ’s Gherkin .

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But … tightrope walkers ? That ’s for sure a novel high gear . [ Sarah Zhang;Telegraph ]

Lead image : Steve James / Creative Commons . Above : Skyscraper City .

It ’s one of the interfering travel weeks of the class , so what better metre to take a close look how we get where we ’re cash in one’s chips — and how we could be doing it better . Check out more of Gizmodo ’s Air Travel Week postshere .

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