Some days you are handed a project that is so interesting and fun to look at yet poses to be complicated in how you want to accomplish the end result and this is one of those with the Curtiss-Wright Cadet Model Airplane as it needed an enclosure where the mounted airplane could easily slide out of its box with a drop down front and could be used in a display without its box. This was a big enough project that I used the floor in the Preservation Lab to get enough “flat surface space” for the book cloth cut all in one piece for the bottom part of the box.
With the assistance of BB-stuff Baby Cys as weights they helped in several ways during the process of constructing this box from holding down a mylar template, gluing of book cloth, and Plazacoate blocks.
I used Velcro dots to close up the front of the box where the drop down side is in place. The bottom tray inside of the box pulls out easily using two tabs and can be removed from the box completely for display. Blocks were used to stabilize the airplane in a level position even though the tail and wings had been previously bent. Underneath the airplane had an interesting marking and throughout all these years still had an antenna.
This was a fun and satisfying project to work on and I was happy with the end result. The Curtiss-Wright Cadet Model Airplane is located in the Special Collections and University Archives of the Parks Library at Iowa State University. Find out more about the Curtiss-Wright Engineering Cadettes Program through our Special Collections finding aid.
Library and Archives Preservation 