This article was taken from the December 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
If you're designing futuristic aircraft, it helps if your research lab looks like one, too. Dutch designers Frank Havermans and Ronald Rietveld created this mobile studio to tread the runway of a former Royal Netherlands Air Force base near Utrecht. "We started by analysing the F-15 fighter jet," says Havermans. "We decided to bring back a new, mean-looking vehicle in the shelter, based not on war and speed, but on inertia and research."
The dimensions of the vehicle, called Secret Operation 610, are based on the hangar that used to house F-15s: it stands 4.5 metres tall, 11 metres wide and eight metres long. The people occupying the lab, aerospace engineering researchers from Delft University of Technology, are trying to create something less fearsome: a green aircraft called CleanEra. The ten seats inside the lab are reconfigurable and a table descends from the ceiling, making the space adaptable for other research needs. "The combination of nature and Cold War history offers an environment for the development of knowledge about nature, technology and aviation," says Rietveld. Secret Operation 610 is just the first iteration: the pair are "colonising the whole airbase" with other mobile labs.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
