9 Million RM to fly with the Red Arrows!!

[Alan F. 0]

A rich woman in the UK is about to splash out around 9 million ringgit for a back seat ride with the Red Arrows. In fact she's paid to take seats in the remaining 8 aircraft too. The money is going to charity, but I'm sure there are people attached to the Reds who could see these 'charity' auctions as a way of helping to fund their expensive annual bill for flying around the world.

 

Red Arrows flights sold for £1.5m

 

The wife of a multi-millionaire ex-miner has paid £1.5m to charity for a chance to fly with the Red Arrows.

 

Julie Heselden, whose husband Jimi founded defence equipment group HESCO Bastion, placed the winning bid for nine seats on the display team.

 

It was the star lot at a ball organised by Help for Heroes, a charity which supports injured service personnel.

 

This was the first time seats with the Lincolnshire-based RAF display team had been put up for auction.

 

Originally just one seat with the Red Arrows was to be auctioned but on the night that was increased to nine - one in each of the display aircraft.

 

A charity spokesman said the bidding went "beyond my wildest dreams" and the money would be used wisely.

 

Former Army officer George Hewson, chairman of the Heroes' Ball committee, said: "I woke up this morning and still couldn't believe it.

 

"We had hoped to raise over £250,000 from the ball but thanks to our sponsors HESCO Bastion and everyone who attended and dug deep into their pockets we raised around £1.65 million.

 

"A fantastic achievement for everyone involved. The Red Arrows bidding went beyond my wildest dreams."

 

Jimi Heselden had worked as a miner before losing his job in a wave of redundancies in the 1980s.

 

But the founder of the Leeds-based company, HESCO, went from strength-to-strength as the firm firstly worked on sand blasting buildings and metal structures.

 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the firm diversified into manufacturing the bastion wire cages which made Mr Heselden a multi-millionaire.

 

From the company's Cross Green industrial estate base the metal baskets have been used across the globe for military defence work and other projects.

 

Mr Heselden is estimated to be worth £205m and was awarded an OBE in 2006

 

(article from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/7603779.stm)

 

[Seth K 3]

Pointless, shud hv used that money to fly virgin galatic

Edited September 8, 2008 by Seth K