"nzuri" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
Flight cancelled for this year - damage
to the balloon this morning while inflating
it (Sky News)

I thought it was all rather pathetic - the think appeared to spring a leak
as soon as they pumped any helium into it.

Yeah, best not try again next year for fear of failure.

I hope the marketing genius and mangement experts who a. renamed the Royal
Aircraft Establishment/DERA (et al) as the appalling 'Qinetiq' and b.
decided to sponsor the effort, will feel that their investment has been
worthwhile. Now whenever the general public, not to mention possible users
of their services, hear the word Qinetiq the image of a sadly deflating
balloon will spring immediately to mind. To think our once great - even
though highly unprofitable - aviation industry has come to this, (exits
right, muttering).

How many of the general public have heard of Qinetiq?
I'll bet to most people it's just another daft made up corporate name they
will quickly forget and in a month will associate with nothing at all.
I only know of them because my parents have just moved to within a few
hundred yards of their Malvern site.

Col
--
Bolton, Lancashire.
160m asl.
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co.uk

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 19:22:34 +0100, "Col"
wrote:


"nzuri" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
Flight cancelled for this year - damage
to the balloon this morning while inflating
it (Sky News)

I thought it was all rather pathetic - the think appeared to spring a leak
as soon as they pumped any helium into it.

Yeah, best not try again next year for fear of failure.

I hope the marketing genius and mangement experts who a. renamed the Royal
Aircraft Establishment/DERA (et al) as the appalling 'Qinetiq' and b.
decided to sponsor the effort, will feel that their investment has been
worthwhile. Now whenever the general public, not to mention possible users
of their services, hear the word Qinetiq the image of a sadly deflating
balloon will spring immediately to mind. To think our once great - even
though highly unprofitable - aviation industry has come to this, (exits
right, muttering).

How many of the general public have heard of Qinetiq?
I'll bet to most people it's just another daft made up corporate name they
will quickly forget and in a month will associate with nothing at all.
I only know of them because my parents have just moved to within a few
hundred yards of their Malvern site.

Col

A government "agency", but whose money was it that actually paid for
all this hot air... or should that be helium.? !!
Steve

In article ,
Strobe writes:
On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 19:22:34 +0100, "Col"
wrote:

How many of the general public have heard of Qinetiq?
I'll bet to most people it's just another daft made up corporate name they
will quickly forget and in a month will associate with nothing at all.
I only know of them because my parents have just moved to within a few
hundred yards of their Malvern site.

A government "agency", but whose money was it that actually paid for
all this hot air... or should that be helium.? !!
Steve

QinetiQ is no longer a government agency. It represents the part of the
former DERA that was privatised, and is now part of the Carlyle Group
IIRC. So it won't have been public money that was spent.
--
John Hall
"One half of the world cannot understand
the pleasures of the other."
From "Emma" by Jane Austen (1775-1817)