Bing Autoplan Conservation, pt. 7

Hey, it is an update on the Bing Autoplan!  It has been awhile, sorry, but there was some logistics and paperwork that needed to be completed to finalize the conservation plans. It took time, but progress is being made.

Covering:

Remember how in the last post about the Bing Autoplan we said that we planned to cover our Bing Autoplan in linen?  Well, after further research and discussion we changed our minds.  The final decision is that we are covering the model in airplane cotton.  The fabric would originally have been doped, but instead we are going with a shellac.  The shellac will look like dope, but won’t have the same long-term stability problems inherent with dope.   Like the original auctioned last year in Germany, this will be stitched onto the frame.

A rectangular piece of aircraft cotton stitched onto a piece of metal tube. Four different options of shellac can fainly be seen.
Sample of airplane cotton stitched onto a metal tube. The shellac options were presented on the opposite side

Conservation:

Conservators at the ICA are hard at work cleaning and stabilizing the metal components.  They sent an update with a picture yesterday, and promised more to come.

Sitting on a covered work table, the fuselage of the Bing Autoplan is about half cleaned. A very clear line divides the clean part vs. the half that is still dirty.
The compressed air tank that serves as the Bing Autoplan’s fuselage is about half cleaned
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