Furniture made from aircraft parts..

The thing about this is I have a lamp stand from a Wellington Bombers propeller, but no one would know ?
What really upsets me is as a young man, our umbrella holder came from the R101, I would love to know where it is today??

God’s work

Unfortunately they are right, doing God’s work : beating swords into ploughshears. We are going to Hades, resurrecting weapons systems:dev2:

Nothing displays human genius as much as an airframe with the skin or canvas off, sometimes I think putting this furniture material out there and allowing people to sit on it, or even better, to have sex on it, is a pretty good way to connect punters with some extraordinary engineering.

In respect of pricing no doubt the original piece as military hardware cost 583% more than what it costs as a piece of furniture. Perhaps the furniture makers should fix a little label to it explaining the original impost on the tax payer, to add a further dimension to it. Now we just need to find the space shuttle toilet that cost a million dollars and turn it into a beer fountain.

I must say I would like the drop tank couch, and I reckon I could persuade a female onto it more readily than asking if she would like to “go upstairs and have a look at my collection of drop tanks”.

Anybody interested in a pair of circa 1768 Thomas Chippendale Spitfire wheel chocks please pm me!!:dev2: [ATTACH=CONFIG]224196[/ATTACH]

David – no.

However, that is not Hangar54 and it is not their style. Additionally, it is not being sold as a coffee table but as a relic engine which the vendor had intended to put to coffee table use but never did, although I accept the vendor is also offering to part with his coffee table design.

However, what it boils down to is this; if it is in the legal title of the vendor he can do what he likes with it, as can any buyer. And should the buyer wish to throw it down a mine shaft, that is also up to him. We might all prefer otherwise, but have no right to have any say over the legitimate sale of goods or the use to which the purchaser puts it any more than we have a right to criticise a warbird owner’s choice of colour scheme on a restored aircraft.

As for the parts Hangar54 have used, I struggle to see, for example, how chunks of Boeing 747 fuselage or a 737 engine pod is taking anything out the hands of restorers?

Does any of this mean that either of you two like the idea of a Mosquito engine being potentially used for a table bearing in mind its provenance??

The overwhelming majority of material is sourced from scrap yards and the like where the aircraft in question would end up in the smelter, or here. Some of the ‘starting point’ material would almost certainly be turned down by restorers, anyway. If these guys work to source it and buy it from a vendor who would otherwise process it for scrap, what exactly is the problem here? The dealer who sells it has every right to do so. And Hangar54 (who buy it) have every right to do so.

In the case of historic items, these guys are aware that ‘heritage’ items might come their way and are sensitive to that and speaking to people in the historic aircraft preservation world. Who knows? They might yet turn up a treasure that will get passed back into the historic aircraft or museum world.

I think we should stop giving them a hard time. I, for one, wish them good luck with their endeavours.

I cannot quite see that turning aircraft parts into furniture doesn’t take parts out of the hands of restorers – is there a glut of Mk10 seats out there at reasonable prices now ?

David , whether you like it or not, these guys have as much right as you or anyone else to buy these parts and turn them into something useful.

I like preserved aircraft as much as you do … but neither you, me or any other aircraft nut(ie; restorer) have any special rights to old aircraft parts.

I wonder where people want to be on this : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rolls-Royce-Merlin-Mosquito-Engine-/301058863067?pt=UK_CPV_Aviation_SM&hash=item461881afdb#ht_232wt_1141

relic from a fatal crash or ‘interesting’ coffee to put your magazines on!

I cannot quite see that turning aircraft parts into furniture doesn’t take parts out of the hands of restorers – is there a glut of Mk10 seats out there at reasonable prices now ?

Certainly not the only ones making this sort of thing – though they do seem to have a bit more imagination than many! If they are putting that much effort into their business and finding customers at those prices then good luck to them – I don’t see anything they have used depriving any restorations – most of what they have used would probably have ended up as coke cans – only possible downside is possible copycat enterprises starting up who are not so sympathetic with what they use as source material?

These guys had a show on cable about 10 years ago: http://www.motoart.com/

There are a number of other such companies in business.

If these parts were that well loved they would be bought by restorers surely.

I bet they wouldn’t want a stall to sell stuff at the Spring Aeroboot – but I wonder if we could persuade them to come along as buyers? 😉

Possibly TO! They certainly come to Shoreham.

I’d add that I know these guys who are a super couple of chaps. I have helped them to a limited extent along the way and the pointed them in the direction of raw material. They have seen a niche high-end market, and gone for it. They also exhibited at the last Paris Airshow and worked with Martin Baker. They also provided pieces for Tom Cruise’s dressing room on a recent film. Good luck to them, I say. And if there is anyone out there with unwanted and otherwise apparently useless aircraft sections, including museums and restorers, it might be worth your while seeking these people out rather than let unwanted stuff rot outside or go for scrap.

If there are people out there who want to buy this unusual bespoke material then what is the problem with that? Mostly, Hangar54 buy scrap aircraft parts from breakers yards etc or else they generally source other material that is hardly going to deprive historic collections or restorers of the parts.

We have had people turn up at the Museum wanting to buy the wings off the Fairey Battle and other associated parts, for scrap value, to build a Bar top for his shed.

Yep polished turds, it seems there are a few that think taking sometimes random bits of aircraft, and polishing it, and calling it art makes it somehow attractive. I think it all looks a load of cr@p, how they dream up the prices for it I do not know, though I am sure it takes many wasted hours to polish rubbish, £7k for a part of a Mk10 ejector seat, I used to buy those unpolished for £50. There is a complete Mk10 seat on Ebay for £5k ish, I would rather have that and not ruin it by polishing it

not quite as modern but very useful,

My Napier Lion XIA prop table, ex Aboukir 1930, maybe Fairey IIIF ?

Andy

Possibly ! But I guess that wouldn’t help the guys who want to put parts back into restorations!

Unfortunately there’s no ‘tongue in cheek’ icon!! 😉

Did someone on here not so long ago say something about polishing a turd! . Maybe we should build aircraft from furniture.:dev2:

Possibly ! But I guess that wouldn’t help the guys who want to put parts back into restorations!

I bet they wouldn’t want a stall to sell stuff at the Spring Aeroboot – but I wonder if we could persuade them to come along as buyers? 😉