Familiar with a Jaguar tail plane?
 

I might have the opportunity to acquire a Jaguar tail plane, in a single piece I gather.

Can anyone tell me if one of these cut in half (if I can figure out how to do that!) is likely to be a suitable size for a desktop?

Apologies if discussing these in pieces is bad form!

You crayons will roll off.

Now a bang seat for a chair would be better.

Presumably a keyboard would cope though? Failing that I've seen people mount glass over the top though I'd rather avoid that.

Think the old man's a bit accustomed to his leather chair with lumbar support these days!

As a computer desk I imagine it would be perfect. Maybe even access panels that could be removed for computer cable access.

Serious now, may be a trip to the Tate Britain and have a look there.

PS, amended, that you speke.

Tate Britain

Good call. I might just do that. Thanks.

Depending on where you are in Wales it might be easier to go to Pembrey and look at the 2 Jags there, the tail planes already have some holes, about the size of a 3kg bomb, that expose the internal stucture!

Why don't you mount a glass desktop on spacers over the curved surface?

Erm, just a small query here please....do you intend to actually use this as a working desk.or just for show?.....slight problem being that it has no access panels and is slightly curved ( sort of helps with the aerodynamics ) not flat....always a useful factor in a desk would you not say, but it does have a rather nice " L" shaped bit which is flat..not that you could actually use this bit for anything.

The cutting up is easy btw...just rent a Husquvarna for about 10mins...

Depends how far from flat it is, only need to be able to affix a monitor and support a keyboard.

Glass over the top is an option, but where I've seen it before it can distract from the piece itself so that's a bit of a last resort, but wouldn't be the end of the world.

The last resort at the end of the world being Barry Island?

Splutter :D. That's another keyboard you owe me, Gainesy!

Has he moved from Hull :}

Aerofoil Section
 

The tailplane ain't flat, its an aerofoil section with panel joins and rivets/fasteners. Anything is going to wobble about on the surface and placing a perspex sheet over the top detracts from the whole idea imho.

Hang the complete tailplane from the wall and get a big sheet of MDF on top of a pile of bricks - functional and very minimalist!!

I think that this is more like the kind of thing he has in mind.

C-119 Rudder Airplane Desk | Motoart

Quite nice.


Dear Santa

Can I have the MK 84 bomb as a lava lamp please.

PS I have been good.

Profile isn't too extreme, but do remember that it's damn heavy. Forget about cutting it in half - it's honeycombed in places and will look rubbish, plus you're never going to half the rudder :)

I've got the top 6 feet of a crashed Lightning (XP707 'DB') on my desk behind my monitors. It's light enough to sit on the desk, I can easily pick it up, but there's not much room to the ceiling. It looks great, but it's not polished and shiny like those Motoart pieces. It's leaning against the wall, so probably sits 10-12 inches out from the wall. If I had more time/motivation I might put it actually on a wall rather than just sit it on the desk.

Before I got it I nearly got a complete one, but it would have only just fitted in my extension, was way too tall for a normal height room, and WAY to heavy to move (300kg+, if I remember right). I think it had large milled sections for mounting on the fuselage, which the fin tip doesn't have.

Personally I think a complete Jag tailfin would be too big and heavy for a desk in a home. (although I'd like a home big enough for that as decoration).

I'm struggling to find an easy way to post a picture of it, but if you PM me I can email you something to show you what it looks like in place.

Phil

They are also quite deceptively large; about 7' along the t/e span and maybe 5 1/2' along the root chord, tapering to about 2 1/2' at full span, not forgetting another 12" of spigot (about 2" dia) from the centre of the root into the fuselage.
Mostly Harmless mentions its heavy, which it is, 3 man lift for safety because of its bulk, but also because the weight always seemed to be at the root and the l/e tip where there were some big lead weights.