THE runway at Heathrow Airport in London has been renamed in honour of Scottish engineer and tarmac pioneer John Loudon McAdam ahead of St Andrew’s Day.
A signpost has been positioned adjacent to where the first piece of tarmac was laid in 1946 as part of a week-long celebration dubbed Made in Scotland.
Born in Ayr, McAdam invented a process of building roads called “macadamisation” which led to what is known today as tarmacadam or tarmac.
Passengers arriving at Heathrow in the coming days could be forgiven for thinking they had touched down north of the border thanks to a tartan takeover.
A specially commissioned tartan by Glasgow-born textile artist Jilli Blackwood – who also designed the Team Scotland parade uniforms for the 2014 Commonwealth Games – is being used to highlight Scottish inventions and their pioneering creators throughout the airport.
These include the television (John Logie Baird), telephone (Alexander Graham Bell), radar (Sir Robert Watson-Watt) and ATM (John Shepherd-Barron).
As part of the Made in Scotland festivities, Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food head chef Andrew Winstanley has created a bespoke Scottish menu in his T5 restaurant.
Ms Blackwood said: “It’s been really exciting working on this project with Heathrow. Being asked to work with the airport’s iconic colours was really quite challenging and forced me to think outside of the box.
“The final design is instantly recognisable to all as a tartan, yet one based on such bold and contemporary colours. It’s a brilliant symbol of Scotland and Heathrow’s relationship and has been used in some really interesting ways.”
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To date Heathrow’s main runway has welcomed approximately 770,000 planes flying to or from Scotland carrying more than 42million passengers.
An estimated 378,000m2 of tarmac has been used across the two runways – equivalent to 10-and-a-half Edinburgh Castles.
Emma Gilthorpe, strategy director at Heathrow, said: “From tarmac to telephones, some could argue that, in some way, Heathrow was actually made in Scotland so we simply wanted to pay homage to the Scots by hosting a week-long celebration. Thank you Scotland.”
Mike Cantley, chairman at Visit Scotland, added: “In 2016, we will be shining a special spotlight on Scotland’s achievements during the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design.
“Hopefully many who experience the takeover at Heathrow will be inspired to make the trip north to discover more about our fascinating country – its history, landscapes, culture and fascinating pioneers.”
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