Comments on: The World's Largest Model Airport

The World's Largest Model Airport

Trurl — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:01:52 -0800

Frederik and Gerrit Braun, energetic twin brothers with no shortage of dreams, have just finished construction of the world's largest model airport. With 40,000 lights, 15,000 figurines, 500 cars, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches, 300 buildings and 40 planes, Knuffingen Airport is both a wonder to behold as well as a technological tour de force. The best part of Knuffingen is that it's alive. Forty planes and 90 vehicles move about autonomously.

By: francesca too

francesca too — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:04:59 -0800

And not a matchstick in sight.

By: doublehappy

doublehappy — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:21:24 -0800

I tried to form a sentence about this but ended up just listing adjectives. This is amazing.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:28:31 -0800

Really amazing, I've seen some nice train layouts but that's pretty mindblowing.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:30:28 -0800

I found this last week and I was really impressed with how they handled the planes taking off and landing on the runway. There's a slot that literally uncovers itself and long, thin panels that drop down just as the plane and it's carriage reach the segment. It happens so fast it looks like a CGI effect. But the upside is that when there isn't a plane on the runway, the runway looks perfectly smooth and flat. It's really hard to spot where the track and slot is when it's covered.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:34:38 -0800

Great great great.

By: ChrisHartley

ChrisHartley — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:46:24 -0800

Wow. One day I would really like to get in to making model layouts, perhaps of trains but perhaps just of little villages without the trains. This is awe inspiring.

By: a small part of the world

a small part of the world — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:53:04 -0800

Look upon their works, ye mighty, and despair!

By: Capt. Renault

Capt. Renault — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:53:57 -0800

To quote James Franco, "Congratulations, nerds!"

By: kcds

kcds — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:57:03 -0800

Double?

By: Dasein

Dasein — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:00:53 -0800

Wow. Leave it to the Germans.

By: kurosawa's pal

kurosawa's pal — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:12:43 -0800

Look upon their works, ye tiny, and despair! 10-year-old me would probably just die from sheer excitement.

By: tylerkaraszewski

tylerkaraszewski — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:15:16 -0800

That is pretty cool, but I can't help but think that if it was me, I would have built a single, real, flying airplane that I could fly myself. But lots of people have done that, so I guess in a way it'd have been comparatively pedestrian.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:15:47 -0800

Yippee-ki-yay, model Fokker.

By: Melismata

Melismata — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:27:01 -0800

Totally awesome (if not TMTOTH)...

By: Anitanola

Anitanola — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:29:14 -0800

If you have twin boys, you have to keep them occupied.

By: Trurl

Trurl — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:30:43 -0800

15,000 "people" is almost enough to fill Madison Square Garden.

By: tumid dahlia

tumid dahlia — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:31:22 -0800

When the planes drive up to the terminal, and the little jetty pops out...are the planes sniffing the building?

By: tumid dahlia

tumid dahlia — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:32:23 -0800

Also imagine if all this time and effort and money and resources had gone into fixing Hamburg's homeless problem!

By: unliteral

unliteral — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:32:37 -0800

Houses with bad reputations It's got it all.

By: woodblock100

woodblock100 — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:38:05 -0800

Secret of life ... figure out how to get people to pay you to do your hobby!

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:54:27 -0800

But just imagine how much money they'd be making if they'd used 1:1 scale.

By: Malor

Malor — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:27:52 -0800

The sheer craft in that is mind-boggling. This was linked on MeFi a few months ago. One of the links led to a video interview with the designer, where he was working out how to make each plane land properly. That's right: for each and every different jet landing on that runway, the designer very, very carefully studied how the real plane lands, and then emulated it as closely as possible with his setup. Apparently a 737 will look different than an Airbus 800, and a 747 will be different again.... not just in takeoffs and landing, but in taxiing around the airport. This was the prior MeFi post. Check out the 'diary' link; each diary entry has video. Somewhere in those links is the video I was talking about, where the main designer is learning how to 'land' each plane properly. It's pretty inspiring, actually, watching the craft and love in what they're doing. And yes, I realize it's fundamentally a bit silly and pointless, but I love it anyway.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:34:09 -0800

This is the sort of thing special effects studios do (or did before CGI) all the time for movies, and for a lot more than 4 million in some cases. Miniatures are captivating in film/video because they seem so lifelike, in real person they are also cool, but not the same way. I found this out when building HO railroads, it never was as cool as it seemed in the pictures.

By: fungible

fungible — Fri, 13 May 2011 05:41:26 -0800

My son just pooped his pants a little, I think.

By: HumanComplex

HumanComplex — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:40:07 -0800

Amazing. They should totally build an airport.

By: Seeba

Seeba — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:58:01 -0800

I was in Hamburg last week and went to visit on the recommendation of a colleague- - didn't realize until reading the Lufthansa in-flight magazine that the airport segment was opening. The entire facility is simply staggering to tour. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was a giant (maybe 9 ft ^2?) arena where HSV and St. Pauli (the local Bundesliga clubs) were "playing" a game... then looking closer, saw beautiful details/humor where St. Pauli fans were being kicked out of the stadium, fans were faving a little grillfest in the corner, etc. After two hours in the warehouse (the entire thing is located in the middle of the Speicherstadt - a 150 year old warehouse city), I had to leave because I was overwhelmed. The lights dim every ten minutes or so as each of the various sections (rural Switzerland, Norway, Hamburg, Las Vegas (complete with Area 51), Utah, etc) come alive at night. When I wandered to the airport, the first thing I noticed wasn't the airplanes taking off (though that was pretty kickasstastic), but a plane that had "blown a tire" (or some such thing) and was on the ground burning... then the Feuerwehr sirens started wailing, and various fire trucks, ambulances, etc came rushing in to put the fire out. I want to go back just to take more in. A few years ago, wandering through the Louvre took 8 hours before I reached overload of beauty, detail, etc. (okay. that's a lie. the last hour or two I was phoning it in) ... this place took about an hour and a half.