A cardboard box diorama featuring a helicopter rescuing downed aviators from an ice berg. ...Only the aviators just happen to be ceramic cats. The helicopter, as you well know, is a Sikorsky HNS-1 (Navy/Coast Guard version of the R-4) with floats scratch built from paper, wood, string, and bamboo), dangling a rope ladder. The aircraft on the ice is a badly damaged Grumman TBF "Avenger," and just behind the engine cowling at left there is evidence of a catastrophic rubber-band failure. The TBF is a Paul K. Guillow brand rubber-band powered balsa and tissue airplane model built in the 1980s. The airplane is named "Tinker-bell" (after our cat), and has a nice portrait of her on the cowling. Atop the nose of the TBF is an injured aviator wearing a radio headset and bandages (his nick-name is "Mitt"-- painted adjacent the cockpit; he is the pilot). Mr. Floof is on the wing, wearing a pneumatic live vest (model B-4); he is studying charts and has a copy of Harold Catty's "The Raft Book" close at paw. The last crew member is "Sardine" who has just deployed the life raft; Sardine is wearing an aviators helmet and goggles. An oblivious harp seal is on an ice pan to the lower left. The astute observer will note that the aircraft has been missing for at least 15 or 16 months. The less astute observer will wonder how the hell anyone would know that.

Installation for the Portland Mini-Museum, titled "The Daring Rescue of our Aviators in Mortal Peril," commemorating an incident that never happened. More in Alt.
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