While attending a briefing from the representatives of BAE Systems, Stuart Nathan from
theengineer heard an interesting response to an interesting comment.
While Future Protected Vehicles project leader Hisham Awad was showing his teams concept vehicle, (an unmanned skirmisher known as Raider) another journalist made the following comment.
‘I like that,’ he said.
‘Looks like the Batmobile.’
‘Ah!’ Awad replied, with a grin.
‘Glad you said that. That’s what we based it on.’
Pardon?
‘Yes, we liked the look of that, so we designed something similar.’
What, the Batmobile in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight?
‘Yes, that one. You see, it turns like a motorbike and it has the same wheel configuration.’
Yes, yes, but you’re basing a future fighting vehicle on something you saw in a film?
‘Well, why not?’ Awad replied.
‘In all seriousness, we decided that we didn’t have a monopoly on inspiration, and if we saw something in a film that we thought might be a good idea, why not take a look at it and see if there’s something practical we can develop?’