{"id":1180,"date":"2014-01-10T21:31:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T21:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2014-02-07T14:26:15","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T14:26:15","slug":"bing-autoplan-conservation-pt-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/2014\/01\/10\/bing-autoplan-conservation-pt-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Bing Autoplan Conservation, pt. 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

General History of the Bing Autoplan<\/p>\n

A 1914 Bing Autoplan <\/a>recently donated by Dick Moyer is the oldest original model aircraft in the museum\u2019s collection.\u00a0 With no covering, flaking paint and dents, the model is only in fair condition.\u00a0 We recently sent the\u00a0Autoplan to the Intermuseum Conservation Association for conservation in the hope of stabilizing the model and restoring it to its former appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bing Autoplan was developed and manufactured by the Bing Brothers<\/a>, a toy company founded in Germany in 1863.\u00a0 The compressed air-powered model first debuted in the 1914 catalog as continuation of a line of rubber-powered flying toys that Bing had produced for several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
\"1914Bingcatalog_autoplan2\"<\/a> Two pages from the 1914 Bing Brothers Toy Catalog featuring the Bing Autoplan. Photographs provided and shared courtesy of the Spielzeugmuseum in Germany.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As sold, the Autoplan was ready to fly and came complete with an air pump for filling the tank.\u00a0 The cost was 12 guineas, or in British pounds of 1915, 12 pounds, 60 pence.\u00a0 Converted to today\u2019s British pounds and then to American dollars, the cost would be $1,368.74.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An undated advertisement for Bing Brothers toy products, with a drawing of the Bing Autoplan. Image shared courtesy of the Spielzeugmuseum in Germany, and trixum.de website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flight Magazine<\/em>, in the February 19, 1915 issue, has a lengthy commentary on the Bing Autoplan.\u00a0 It notes flaws in the design of the wings and chassis, but the quality construction of the motor and tank.\u00a0 More importantly, Flight<\/em> credits Bing Brothers with making the manufacture of model airplanes a commercial success, something that companies in Great Britain had yet to do.\u00a0 Want to read the coverage yourself?\u00a0 You can at:<\/p>\n

Flight Magazine\u2019s<\/em> coverage, January 1, 1915, pg. 17 – https:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/pdfarchive\/view\/1915\/1915%20-%200017.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Flight Magazine\u2019s<\/em> coverage, February 19, 1915, pg. 135 – https:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/pdfarchive\/view\/1915\/1915%20-%200135.html<\/a><\/p>\n

We have not been able to find any contemporary accounts of the model\u2019s flight characteristics, but it did fly.\u00a0 Later comments indicate that it was difficult to trim, but that might be speculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SAM35\u2019s<\/a>
SAM35\u2019s Yearbook #9 provides a bit of commentary on the ability to fly the Bing Autoplan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is unclear how long the Autoplan\u2019s were manufactured, and how many were made.\u00a0 As of early 2014, museum staff know of four currently still in existence \u2013 ours, one in a private collection in the United States, one auctioned in Germany last year, and another about to be in the collection of the Spielzeugmuseum<\/a>, a museum dedicated to the Bing Brothers Toy Company in Germany.<\/p>\n

More history in the next part.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General History of the Bing Autoplan A 1914 Bing Autoplan recently donated by Dick Moyer is the oldest original model aircraft in the museum\u2019s collection.\u00a0 With no covering, flaking paint and dents, the model is only in fair condition.\u00a0 We recently sent the\u00a0Autoplan to the Intermuseum Conservation Association for conservation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54,47,1],"tags":[56,106,50],"class_list":["post-1180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-model-aviation","category-free-flight","category-museum","category-uncategorized","tag-artifact","tag-bing-autoplan","tag-museum-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1203,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}