{"id":1204,"date":"2014-02-07T16:10:04","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T16:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2014-02-07T16:10:04","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T16:10:04","slug":"bing-autoplan-conservation-pt-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/2014\/02\/07\/bing-autoplan-conservation-pt-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Bing Autoplan Conservation, pt. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covering Mysteries<\/p>\n

When we first saw the Bing Autoplan<\/a>, we assumed that it was originally covered in silk, as would have been typical of aircraft of the time.\u00a0 We were wrong.<\/p>\n

The conservators at the ICA <\/a>first brought this to our attention after they finished examining the covering remnants that are still attached to the frame.\u00a0 Their determination is that the fibers they were seeing were certainly not<\/i> silk.\u00a0 Another lesson learned in not making assumptions.<\/p>\n

\"Remnants<\/a>
Remnants of the covering still attached to the tail surface.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It does, however, beg the question.\u00a0 What was the Bing Autoplan originally covered with?<\/p>\n

Correspondence with an associate at the Spielzeugmuseum<\/a>, the Bing Brothers Toy Museum in Germany, offered a translation of the catalog text describing the Autoplan.\u00a0 The text describes a \u201cwater-resistant rubber textile\u201d used as covering.\u00a0 Our contact noted, however, that the Autoplan that was most recently sold at auction was said to have its original covering and that it just looked like natural linen.\u00a0 The fabric was also not adhered to the wing using dope or another adhesive.\u00a0 Instead, it was stitched.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This Bing Autoplan was recently auctioned in Germany. The covering is said to be original. Image shared courtesy of the Spielzeugmuseum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We shared this information with the conservator, and he speculated that the \u201cwater-resistant rubber textile\u201d could be the remnants that they were seeing, although other evidence points to a paper covering.<\/p>\n

We wonder, we wonder (which is a type of assumption and could get us in trouble again).\u00a0 Was the original \u201cwater-resistant rubber textile\u201d covering damaged at some point between its manufacture in 1914 and its use as a decoration at the Lindbergh party in 1927?\u00a0 And could an intrepid modeler have repaired the model by removing that covering and adhering something more readily at hand, like paper?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Or maybe there\u2019s another explanation.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

We do know that the one auctioned off in Germany was said to be authentic and original, so we are going to use that as our guide.\u00a0 The decision was made to cover our Bing Autoplan in linen.\u00a0 We\u2019re also taking a lot of notes on the process and decisions involved to document what happened.\u00a0 That way, if there are questions in the future speculation and assumption are less likely.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A close up of the Bing Autoplan wing panel recently auctioned in Germany. Image shared courtesy of the Spielzeugmuseum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covering Mysteries When we first saw the Bing Autoplan, we assumed that it was originally covered in silk, as would have been typical of aircraft of the time.\u00a0 We were wrong. The conservators at the ICA first brought this to our attention after they finished examining the covering remnants that […]<\/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],"tags":[56,106,50],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-model-aviation","category-free-flight","category-museum","tag-artifact","tag-bing-autoplan","tag-museum-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","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=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}