Predestined for greater things
Lufthansa Upcycling Collection "Lima Romeo": the making of the Wingtip Fence Wall Shelf
When creative minds are challenged with the question: "What could we make out of the wingtip fences of the D-AILR?", the answer could result in a fantastic design object such as the unique wall shelf for the Lufthansa Upcycling Collection. Perhaps not "unique", but certainly "two-of-a-kind". That’s because the "Lima Romeo" has of course two wings, and this limits the Wing Tip Fence Wall Shelf automatically to two pieces.
The perfect mount for a shelf
The aeronautical radiance of the wingtip fence combined with the functionality of a wall shelf results in an eye-catching designer piece. And yet, turning the wing part into a shelf was not a complex operation. Because the original mounting system previously used for fixing the wingtip fence to the wing of the Airbus can also be used to mount the shelf to the wall. It’s almost as though the aircraft designers had a hunch that this component had greater things to come after fulfilling its official service.
All it took was adding a few shelves – and done!
Once the issue of mounting the unit to the wall was solved so quickly, it was only a matter of attaching the eight-millimetre-thick acrylic glass shelves. With stylish stainless steel bottom brackets. But where best to position the shelves? By virtue of the three static wicks, which ensure that the buildup of static electricity on an aircraft as a result of liquids in the air is slowly and evenly transferred back to the atmosphere, a particular design was already pretty much a given. And the shelves had to harmonise with this design.
Even rivets in aeronautical style
Ultimately, the best look was achieved by placing the middle shelf in line with the middle static wick. The two other shelves were then attached at a distance of 12 centimetres from this shelf. Since rivets are often used in aircraft construction, the shelves were attached with authentic M6 rivet nuts that were then forced into the material. The width of the shelves increases by 14, 26 and 40 centimetres from the top to the bottom, which again is consistent with the dynamic basic shape of the wingtip fence.
