Imagine squadrons of planes lined up along the Mitchell Highway and all roads leading to Narromine.
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That’s the future we can have but the community has to get involved to help make it happen.
Giant scrap metal sculptures shaped as aircraft will begin appearing in the area in the next few months and Macquarie 2100 needs help to get to the magically planned number of 50 exhibits.
Last week a mate drove his tilt tray, free of charge, to pick up four glider wings and one rear fuselage from Mark and John Rowe, who’ve donated these vital components to the cause.
While we were loading this booty I glanced across the alleyway and noticed a five-metre radio mast on top of a carport.
Five minutes later, after a knock on the door, and Sandra Mutton had kindly donated it to the project.
When I’d clambered on to the carport roof I also found a seven-metre box section fabricated from light reo(reinforced steel) and that was also offered up.
The mast will form the perfect fuselage for a 1909 Bleriot style aircraft sculpture and the box section will make it easy to construct a set of wings - if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, Google this plane and you’ll see how simple it really is.
Even though the Bleriot fuselage was box shaped and not triangular, that’s our artistic licence at play.
This was a pretty good start, and a couple of days later it got even better.
While meeting with a couple of our members on their farm I was given a 24-metre spray boom which had seen better days, and will see better still as an almost complete wing for a large aircraft.
There were numerous other donations from the amazing scrap heap including a couple of windmill fans which will slot in as ready-made propellers.
Now M2100 is calling for other community-minded people to help this amazing local project.
The ‘Plane Trail’ will create numerous positive outcomes including serving as a 24/7 free advertisement for the incredible Narromine Aviation Museum, put the town on the map as a hub of historical and current day aero importance and also be a tourist attraction in its own right.
It will also create a sense of shared community vision and have positive mental health aspects, scrap metal sculpture competitions have sprung up around the world for this reason.
We’re also in the early planning stages to hopefully build a separate, but interlinked sculpture trail from Nevertire to Warren to help grab people off the highway and into town to spend their dollars.
This is the sort of project which could create national recognition for the region.
We need lots of help to make this happen and people can contribute in a number of ways including:
❏ Let me know if you have any scrap metal lying around, especially stuff that’s already fabricated such as spray booms, slightly bent unusable roof trusses, grain bins, silos or corrugated iron, truck chassis, windmill towers - anything is of interest; any old aircraft parts;
❏ If you can weld or have fabrication skills and are willing to donate some time;
❏ Any designs from scrap will be gratefully accepted, even if you don’t have the materials on hand we’ll probably be able to source them, there’s plenty of stuff out there;
❏ A tilt tray or crane truck we could use at some stage; a portable welder/generator we could use, if we get lots of offers we won’t have to keep hammering the same people’s equipment;
❏Anyone who owns land along the Mithcell Highway where you’d be happy to host a plane sculpture - there are many ‘Animals on Bikes’ sculptures between Dubbo/Yeoval/Cumnock and Molong and the hosting farmers haven’t had any dramas;
❏ Any other way you can help which I haven’t thought of;
If you have any junk you’d like to donate to the Plane Trail, please give me a buzz and text pictures to 0429 45 22 45 or email to m2100@bigpond.com.
If you can help in any other way, please give me a call, it will be a fantastic undertaking to be part of.