Eleanor Harris: An Eye On British Airways i360

Preview of the glass
passenger pod

The most popular questions I’m asked at the moment are: Is the tower at full height now and when is the glass pod arriving? Well, the tower is at full height and the pod is due to arrive in early November.
The curved glass has already been manufactured in Italy and the glass passenger pod is currently under construction in France by Poma. Poma is undertaking a trial assembly at present attaching the 48 pieces of glass – each a bit like segments of an orange – to a “dummy” chassis; the real chassis is already attached to the i360 tower. Once we are happy it is in perfect working order, it will be shipped to Brighton in about 30 lorries.
Entirely hand made, the glass pod is already a striking structure. Our architects, Marks Barfield, went out to watch this process and David Marks described the pod as a “perfect liquid bubble” and the underside of the glass pod is mirrored glass, reminiscent of an Anish Kapoor sculpture

The i360, in engineering terms, is a vertical cable – the first of its kind in the world. We turned to world-leading cable car experts to build this, Poma-Sigma. Poma is best known as ski lift and cable car manufacturers, but they also built the 32 London Eye capsules and drive system.
When completed the futuristic glass viewing pod will be incredibly spacious – approximately 10 times the size of a London Eye capsule and has the capacity to hold up to 200 people with plenty of space to move around and see the view from different angles. With a Sky Bar, it will be the perfect entertaining space to host parties, weddings and group visits.
Travelling from street level (Kings Road) up to 138 metres, the viewing pod will provide a 360 degree view through curved glass, before returning to beach level. Among its other features, the i360 passenger pod will be heated and air-conditioned, is fully accessible for wheelchair users, and has bench seating for passengers.
I cannot wait to welcome the breathtaking i360 glass passenger pod to Brighton!
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