Collections Highlights
Pictured below are some of the many documents and artifacts that are preserved by the National Model Aviation Museum.
| George Twine recently donated this Free Flight Berg’s Humming Bird toy helicopter, made in West Germany and sold in Philadelphia just after World War II. The helicopter and box are whimsical, and offer a look into the recreation and social habits of Americans and Germans after the war. Due to its age and the materials it was constructed with, both the aluminum helicopter and box require delicate handling. To help reduce the amount of handling, a custom storage mount was created for the box, and the parts of the helicopter. |
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Here is the toy helicopter as assembled. The fuselage is a thin, shaped piece of aluminum and the rotor blades are a wire frame covered in tissue. The blade support piece is bent forward, so the rotor blades do not sit as they would have in flight. The blades are also bent and have several tears in the delicate tissue covering. Luckily, the fuselage is relatively unscathed
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The box was intact, but the majority of edges where the sides meet had lost integrity, so the box does not hold shape.
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Creating a custom mount for storage
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| First, the bottom section of the box was gently pulled back into shape, using wide Mylar straps to hold the pieces together. |
It was placed on the padded lid of an acid-free box to fully support the box. The extended cardboard on the right and left sides also mean that Museum staff can pick the entire support up by the sides, without having to handle the artifact itself. |
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| Next, the lid of the helicopter box, which is more stable than the bottom section, was gently closed over the bottom section. To hold the entire box on the support securely, more Mylar straps were used. |
Finally, the box was wrapped in a sheet of acid-free tissue to protect it from light and dust. |
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| Similarly, for the helicopter, each blade was individually wrapped in acid-free tissue. |
The entire rotor then was placed on a padded acid-free box lid. The center and each blade were supported with foam so that the weight is equally distributed and there is no undue pressure on any piece. |
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| The fuselage section and the winder were also wrapped in acid-free tissue.Each piece was placed on the acid-free box lid. Again, the Mylar straps were used to gently hold each piece in place. |
The pieces are now in storage, awaiting a researcher to examine them, or the chance to be on exhibit. |
MKV 03/05/2009
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