Authenticity?

[abufletcher]

A supposedly authentic fabric sample is being offered for sale on eBay. The seller claims that is comes from a WWI German aircraft. I wonder whether anyone could offer an opinion as to the authenticity of this piece (seems unlikely to me) or better yet any insight as to what aircraft this might have come from and/or the authenticity of the blue color -- which is really quite striking!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...2267363847&rd=1

[Brad]

OMG! It must be a part of one of MvR's aircraft!

I suspect a scam sir.

Brad

[abufletcher]

I would also assume it's a fake and don't plan on bidding. BUT the question is whether or not this is a GOOD fake, i.e. whether it has any sort of historical accuracy. For example, was this shade/hue of blue ever actually used? Can I as a scale RC modeler learn anything about how fabric coverings were finished and/or painted from this?

In addtion it's just an interesting detective mystery. If it is a fake is there some obvious way to demonstrate this fact (based on the photos alone)?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

abufletche:
If you have accress to the fabric sample, I would be interested in the thread count per inch, (both directions,) 50 to 55 ypi. From the photographs it is apparent that the fabic is bleached (Its white.) The germans used both unbleached and bleached linen fabric.
I do not recognize the wood member. Also I don't see the evidence of a rib perpendicular from the wood member. In 18 inches I would expect to see at least one rib. The red is very close to the "Richthofen Red". What is the width of the white border on the cross arm? Should be around 50 mm. Without some further study, I would be suspicious.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[RAGIII]

Along these lines:
A friend of mine gave me a gift about 12 years ago. It has a letter attached from the Smithsonian, and a piece of Fabric glued to a B/W Drawing of U.10 Flown by Heinz Von B. Marconnay. The overall presentation is about 20" by 30".
Is this Official from the Smithsonian? The small 2"x3" fabric patch is very dark and Brownish? ( Violet)?? Is this worth anything?
RAGIII

[Dan_San_Abbott]

RAGIII:
Your piece of fabric from Fok.D.VII(OAW)4635/18 has a history and as such has value. If you piece of fabric is brown, it is from the underside of the tailplane. Be sure to keep it with its documentation. The nose was brown as was the underside of the tailplane, the fabric on the fuselage and the top surface of the tailplane was slate grey.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Jim]

These were created by the Smithsonian and were sold in the gift shop at the Air and Space Museum back around the late 1970s - early 1980s. There are a number of different ones, each done the same style with a 2" by 2" cutting of actual fabric taken from the aircraft when they were restored. Each one has nice two color photo, a write-up about the aircraft and the piece of real fabric from the aircraft. As I recall the other ones in the series of these include the Albatross D.Va, a 1914 Bleriot XI, the Curtiss NC-4 (1st trans-Atlantic flight in 1919), a 1918 De Havilland DH-4 bomber, the Douglas World Cruiser (1st round-the-world flight in 1924), the Fokker T-2 (1st non-stop coast-to-coast flight in 1923) the Wright Vin Fiz (1st coast-to-coast flight 1911), and Amelia Earhart's red Lockheed Vega (the Winnie Mae).

I don't know how many were produced of each one, but I wouldn't think it would have been a huge number. I bought a set of them when they came out by going to the gift shop as each one was issued. They weren't very expensive at the time (something like $25 or $30 - I don't recall exactly) but they also didn't seem to have very many in stock. You see them come up on Ebay or in aviation antique dealer's stocks from time to time and for some reason that I don't understand at all, they don't normally sell for very high prices considering the real history they represent.

I'm not sure why the Smithsonian stopped this series, though one reason I heard indirectly was that there was concern that maybe they shouldn't be selling historically important bits from their aircraft and they should be preserving the original coverings of their aircraft in their entirety.

If anyone knows about how many of these they made I would love to know.

[RAGIII]

Dan and Jim,
Thank you both for the excellent info! Its nice to know it IS original and has some Historic Value. I will hold on to it , unless I get desperate for some new kit release and have No Money
RAGIII