WHO'S A BIG BOY THEN?
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Michelin Man has joined the Jet set. To celebrate Its centenary, Michelin built four 15-storey hot air balloons, one of which appeared at the Fleet Show at the NEC in Birmingham in April. The balloons have now visited more than 20 countries on four continents, accompanied by a fleet of seven conventional hot-air vessels.
The tubby icon's vital statistics will leave you agog: 49.6m high, maximum all-up weight 1,048kg, fabric quantity 4,230 linear metres or 5,920m2 (enough to cover two football pitches) secured with 12 million stitches. The power (burner) output is 28 million BTU/hr; enough, it seems, to heat a town of 22,500 people.
Michelin Man made his first public appearance in 4% 1898. He was conceived when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin spotted a pile of tyres and remarked; If it had arms and legs it would look like a man." They christened him Bibendum after a Latin toast, or "Nunc est Bibendum" as we say down at the Fax and Ferret.