WW2 Supermarine Spitfire Made From 6,500 Egg Cartons

The Supermarine Spitfire, the iconic fighter airplane of British Royal Air Force during World War II, attracts once again public attention, this time in the form of a replica built with 6,500 egg cartons.

Weapons may not represent the best things to build humanitarian campaigns around, fighter airplanes even less so. However, given that the target audience of the following campaign is represented by wounded soldiers, the whole project actually makes sense. More precisely, Eggs for Soldiers is fundraiser in progress initiated by people concerned with what happens to people who don’t come back unharmed from the battlefield.

Each pack of Eggs for Soldiers that is sold brings 15 pence to Help for Heroes, the organization that focuses on wounded military persons. Artists Jack Munro and Charlotte Austen came up with a very original idea for the organization’s March Fourth 2013 campaign. I really appreciate the word play between “march forth” and the date this campaign took place. They created a Mark I Spitfire that stands 40 feet long and 42.5 feet wide.

The two artists came up with the idea, but the team that assembled the plain was much more numerous. Putting everything together took them 6 weeks, 6,500 egg cartons, 1.5 gallons of glue, 5,000 nails, 2.5 gallons of paint, and 10,000 staples. As Jack Munro declared: “The biggest challenge in building the structure of the Eggs for Soldiers Spitfire was to recreate the plane’s iconic but complex geometry as accurately as possible.”

The Eggs for Soldiers web site provides additional details regarding the farms that the eggs come from, the charity and even recipes that could be made with the aforementioned aviary products. In addition, the places people can buy these eggs from are listed, along with a few entertaining games that might come handy for the ones willing to spend a little more time on this website.

The following video reveals in fast motion how the Spitfire airplane was assembled. It should be noted that only the exterior of the plane is made from egg cartons, while the interior was built with timber and steel. Even though the egg cartons don’t weigh much, it was really important to create a sturdy structure, to make sure that the plane doesn’t fall apart.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-X3M1VL6B8]

After being showcased by Help for Heroes for their campaign, the egg carton Spitfire became an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, where it rests near many other classic aircrafts.

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