Page 41 - March 2022

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Hello Mr. Moore –
My name is Jocelyn, and my grandfather has two wooden
airplanes hanging in his room. He says they are World War I
Barnstorming fighter aircraft and that one was purchased from an
antique dealer and one that was purchased from a friend who told
him that it was made by a World War I Veteran. I am interested
in airplanes and flying and have never seen such aircraft. Can you
please tell me about them and how much they are worth? I am
trying to purchase them from him. He said that the brown one was
in pieces when he purchased it and he had it restored. They are
both made of wood. The brown one is 18 3/4 inches long by 30 1/2
inches wide and the silver plane is 25 inches long and 37 inches wide.
Thank you for any help you can give. – JJ

Hello Jocelyn and congratulations on finding these great
pieces of American folk art in Grandpa’s room. Wow, many
things come to mind when I see large handmade pieces such as
this. One, they might be looked at as “Trench Art” depending
on where they were made. I once read that in any war, a
soldier’s worst enemy along with the opposing army is suffering
from boredom while in camp. Many times, these men would
whittle or make items and send them home rather than sit idle.
I define “Trench Art” as a soldier’s rendition of an object that is
made from salvaged war finds such as parts from a downed aircraft or
destroyed military equipment that litters a battlefield. These items were
sent home or sold to other soldiers to send home to family and friends.
I have seen miniature woodenairplanes, ships, tanks etcetera made from
parts gathered on the battlefields of Europe.
Many times, in WWI, Soldiers would use the wood from downed
aircraft to make miniature versions of the plane they took the wood
from. I once purchased the estate of a WWII Veteran who collected
World War II trench art knives made from downed Japanese and
German aircraft. In the Civil War, both Union and Confederate
sides would carve coins or lead mini-balls (bullets) into love tokens or
miniature sculptures.

Veterans of wars would make items they were associated with
in wartime such as airplanes, tanks, Jeeps, and any conceivable
item that has ever been used in wartime from small arms to scale
models of towns that were liberated by troops. I am not only talking
about the winning side, people from every war on both sides made
remembrances of their time in battle.
We cannot say for sure how these two aircraft models were made,
but I am guessing, if one of these creations came from a WW1 Veteran
it is the third mentioned possibility. Regardless, they are
bothe spectacular handmade renditions of circa
1918/1920s aircraft.
Only one of these model airplanes might have
been of WWI vintage and it was not a fighter
aircraft but an observation aircraft for the
purpose of spotting German U boats
(submarines) in 1918.
It is my opinion the Brown aircraft is a
rendition of the 1918 N model dual-
motor Curtiss flying boat aircraft with
a spotting seat in the rear. In the early
days the plane manufacturers would
make changes regularly. Two engines on
Monday and three engines on Tuesday. The
model is a twin-engine, and Curtiss made a
two-engine but he could not get it off the ground, so he
added a center engine that became standard.
The Silver Aircraft is a folk-art rendition of a 1926 open
cockpit Ryan airplane. Both flew at the breathtaking high speed of
around 90 miles per hour.

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