Expensive, but Still Very Cool
By Parrothead Jeff, on 11 November 2009
If I only had a spare $995, this would be on its way here right now 8) From Historic Space:
One Giant Leap - Collectible presentation of artifacts from the Wright Flyer and Apollo 11
It was our desire to produce a collectible presentation celebrating the two most significant accomplishments of flight: the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers, and Apollo 11, the first flight to land a man on the surface of the moon. Each acrylic contains a piece of material from the outer flying surface from each of those two flights. The swatch of Wing Fabric is from the original Wright Brothers aeroplane “Flyer 1″ that undertook the first ever manned powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17 1903. This artifact was originally supplied by the Wright Brothers Estate. The swatch of gold “Kapton Foil” that formed the outer skin of an Apollo Command Module spacecraft is from “Columbia” which carried the Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon, from where Armstrong and Aldrin landed to undertake the first ever moonlanding and moonwalk by humans. This artifact was originally supplied by the Mascoutah Aerospace Museum.
The pieces of artifact are approximately 5 millimetres in length, mainly triangular or polygonal in shape, and are encapsulated for posterity within a crystal clear acrylic block, measuring 9.5 x 3 x 1.5 inches in size (24.5 x 7.5 x 4 cm). The acrylic material is a non-yellowing, scratch-resistant, high quality lucite. Presentation Case Also encapsulated within the acrylic itself are two historic images pertaining to these flights: the Wright Brothers first moment of flight and the Apollo 11 “first footprint”. The acrylic block is free-standing, and attractively shaped with chamfered sides, it is supplied within a high quality black presentation case with a black Satin inner liner and the “one giant leap” title embossed in silver on the front cover of the presentation case. Each of our acrylic presentations is accompanied by an attractive (printed on canvas) hand signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity, issued by Historic Space as your assurance of authenticity. The originals of the documented certificates of authenticity pertaining to the source artifacts are lodged within our files.
This acrylic was produced in 2003 in a very small edition of just 20 pieces in total, and sold out within days of us originally offering it. Since then we have never seen one in the secondary market. We now have just ONE available.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool 
And yes, I know I don’t need it, but I sure wouldn’t mind having it
Uhhh — well, uh — are you insane? A thousand bucks for that???? No, wait. They’re insane saying it IS that price.
That’s definitely one of those — “hey, it’s your money.” That is just crazy.
Kath,
I don’t expect everyone to understand this one
What I see are pieces of the first ever airplane and the spacecraft from the first manned mission to leave Earth, travel to another celestial body, and return.
Really, it’s not that bad compared to some other things I’ve seen in this price range
About 32 years ago or so, I saw the first moon rocks in a sealed container at Brook AFB’s Museum. On my daily commute now is the B-52 that was the launch plane for the X-15. I see this every morning and afternoon. As I have said, when things settle down, pictures will be posted. When I was in grade 5, I saw Gordo Cooper’s Mercury Spacecraft at the Montana National Gaurd Gym in Helena as a child. I saw it. I didn’t even touch it. But I stood next to it. And that was around 44 years ago. Remember the perspective post on my blog? Insert here.
BTW, my paternal grandfather, Wesley Walter Cassel was born on December 17, 1903. Jeff knows and a few others know what that day is in aviation history. For Kath, I will state it now. That is the day that the Wright Brothers flew the Flyer at Kitty Hawk, NC. On the occasion of the 40th wedding anniversary to Edith Wambeke, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.
And on 26 June 1876, a shirt-tail relative on my mother’s side was killed by either a Sioux or Cheyenne with a Henry or Spencer while dug into shallow rifle pits with Reno and Benteen at the Greasy Grass, otherwise known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
I went too deep again.