Complete set of the nine flown fabric presentations created by the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum with fabric removed during restoration of historically important aircraft. Each swatch measures about 2 x 2 and is affixed to an informational poster and matted to an overall size of 16 x 20. Pieces include: a brown swatch from Calbraith Perry Rodgers’s Wright Brothers Vin Fiz; a bright red swatch from Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5B; a dark brown swatch from from Oakley Kelly and John Macready’s Fokker T-2; a beige swatch from the Bleriot XI; a dark brown swatch from the Douglas World Cruiser ‘Chicago’ that made the first around-the-world flight in 1924; a dark brown swatch from Lt. Heinz von Beaulieu-Marconnay’s Fokker D-VII ‘U.10’; a gray swatch from the Albatros D.Va No. 7161/17; a brown swatch from the Curtiss NC-4 Flying Boat that made the first transatlantic flight in 1919; and a dark gray swatch from the De Havilland DH-4 WWI bomber. A crease to the center of the De Havilland DH-4 sheet and toned adhesive affecting the appearance of the Albatros D.Va sheet, otherwise overall fine condition. Rarely offered as a complete set, this is an absolutely remarkable collection of relics from some of the most important aircraft in aviation history.
