Fragment, Aeroplane
Description
A wooden V-shaped remnant from an AVRO 504 biplane. It is hollow with remnant pieces of white fabric along two sides. A row of nails run along the outside edges on both sides. "Aeroplane / Smashed / 11th Nov 1920 Captain Russell / (3 killed) Miss Kathleen Warnock / Mr J Clarke" is written on one side.
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Object detail
Classification
Credit line
This
fragment
of
a
plane
come
from
an
ill-fated
Avro
504K
that
belonged
to
the
Walsh
Brothers’
New
Zealand
Flying
School.
The
plane
crashed
behind
New
Plymouth
Boys'
High
School
in
1920.The
pilot
–
Richard
Russell
–
and
his
two
passengers,
the
Mayor
of
New
Plymouth,
James
Clarke,
and
Kathleen
Warnock,
were
all
killed.
They
were
the
first
civilian
aeroplane
fatalities
in
the
country.
The
plane
crashed
while
providing
public
flights
from
the
New
Plymouth
racecourse.
Accession number
A77.779
Collection type
Public comments
The fragment is the leading edge (front of the wing) gusset section of a wing rib. Ribs give the wing its aerofoil shape. Wing ribs for this aIrcraft were made of spruce strips top and bottom with cross pieces forming a girder structure and plywood gussets nailed and glued on the sides. The fabric strips are rib tapes. Their purpose is to stop the Irish linen that the wing was covered with from wearing through where it pulled tight over the ribs. The wing covering fabric was stitched to the wing ribs and another strip of fabric tape was doped over the stitching on the outside of the wing.
- Mike Mullholland posted 3 years ago.