Can anyone tell me if the Spitfire I see on the roof of the Breitling building is real? (see attached pic)

I drive past there regularly on the way to my son's school and it always catches my eye.

I've Googled it but unfortunately haven't found anything, except for entries about the airshows held there ( in Grenchen ).

TIA

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I found this on the web under 'Corporate Trivia':

Well, I have a feeling I can pretty much pencil in Breitling on a list of worst receptions. The good-looking, four-story head office (renovated in 2001) stands two blocks from downtown Grenchen (population 16,000) and the length of bicycle from the main railroad tracks running through town. Directly on the other side of the train tracks stands a similar looking three-story Breitling watch production facility. Large signs on all sides of both buildings let train passengers; car drivers and pedestrians know who occupies the structures. If the large signs aren't enough to draw attention to the place then surely the full-size plane parked on Breitling's building roof will do the job.

Entering the building you walk up a short ramp (like an airplane ramp) and are greeted by several receptionist manning the reception counter (airport check-in counter?). I explain who I am, what I do and ask if they could find out who ended up with my letter of introduction mailed over a month earlier to CEO Theodore Schneider.

In a few minutes Valerie Burgat, Advertising and Public Relations, steps into the lobby. Burgat doesn't know if Schneider received my letter but dismisses it by saying, "Mr. Schneider doesn't give interviews, we don't give tours and we don't release figures". I explain what I do and how I collect corporate trivia---unusual information on company headquarters. I point out its not every day one finds an airplane atop a building.

Burgat agrees to answer my questions but it's over in three-minutes, as she couldn't care less. The plane on the roof isn't the real thing but a replica minus the engine. Burgat doesn't know what kind of plane it is and isn't interested in finding out for me.

About 140 people work here, there's plenty of employee parking, smoking isn't allowed and there's no formal dress code. I'm in and out the door in six minutes along with a Breitling watch catalog. Go to the company's website and you'll find very little info on the company. I found the following info in the Breitling catalog: Leon Breitling founded the company back in 1884 in the Jura Mountains. Ernst Schneider bought the company in 1979. Don't know how CEO Theodore Schneider is related-son? brother? cousin? or uncle?

Note even sure it is a Spitfire. The Breitling link with aviation came with the Schneider Trophy

What is mounted there, could be a Supermarine S6B, with the floats removed ?

Nope. It is either a Seafire or a spitfire MkVI to early Mk XII. Note it has the Rotol 4 blade propellor and that was first made with the MKVI in 1942 to get it higher up. With the MkXII the Rotol 5 blade propellor was used...

What a bizarre hobby, but interesting nonetheless. Aren't you glad that there are these strange people out there that can bring us this stuff ? Do you have the original link ?

dave

****'s sake, is there nothing that you don't have a definitive edge on ?

In this case, Google was my friend

Here is the link. http://www.corporatetrivia.com/curre...breitling.html

Probably, part of the success of the forum is because there are those of us who rise to the challenge when information is requested!

I must say that the guy running the site must be seriously weird. Snooping around corporate headquarters asking banal questions is strange, and then to grade them on Quality of Reception.... He should stay-in more.

dave

Were you not a world war II junky when you were young, building all those model planes of which two were the clear stars(unless of course you were German in which case the choice would be probably different)?! I know as much about Spitfires and Lancaster bombers as the kids of today do about tie fighters and millenium falcons. Only difference is that my planes actually flew...

Umm, I was thinking the XII was swinging either four bladed Rotols or Jablos. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture but the prop should turn the other way round if this were a Griffon XII.

MKIII also had a 4 blade propellor and was a merlin.
We need a better picture.

Ah, I think this plane might actually have something to do with Ray and Mark Hanna's famous OFMC "Breitling Fighters" - they had a Mark IX in their fleet. Ray passed away in Switzerland two years ago.

http://www.bwo.admin.ch/wohntage/001...XI2IdvoaCVZ,s-

Interesting they could get their hands on one of the two-ish built to III standard...

The shape of the engine cowling looks quite square-ish, so I'm guessing it's a Griffon-engined job. Mind you, only one cannon on each wing...

Warlord, Victor & Commando on a Sunday ... was more into building the Graf Spree ... steamboats

Model World. With that guy with the beard who later did the Great Egg Race....

dave

Wilf Lunn I take it & not Dr Heinz (mad as **** scientist) Wolf ?

I remember trawling car boot sales on a Sunday morning for old Victor annuals because the ones they made when I was a kid had dropped the war comics and replaced them skateboarding and crap like that...