Airplane Fragment

This small prototype designed for use on a warplane is just one of the many components the Eameses’ created with the Evans Products Company. Between 1942 and 1945, they worked across a wide range of sizes, both small and large. In addition to the oversized components they built, including skins for the rudders, stabilizers, and bodies of airplanes, the designers attended to elements on a more modest scale. In order to develop the plans for these prototypes,Charles and Ray had to gain an understanding of aeronautics. Roughly 10 years after the end of the war, Charles would bring his knowledge of plane construction to the set of Billy Wilder’s The Spirit of St. Louis, a biographical film devoted to the pilot Charles Lindbergh. For the film, Charles made a replica of the aviator’s fixed-wing aircraft. According to Charles, “Charles Lindbergh couldn’t tell the difference.”