-a real /wind-tunnel/ model of the shuttle that never was-
There's better photos at:
-fini-
-a real /wind-tunnel/ model of the shuttle that never was-
There's better photos at:
-fini-
Nice, he's selling it at 99=A2 with a $175.00 packing charge. Shipping is even extra. A lot extra... So he's selling this thing for 176 bucks plus shipping and he doesn't want to share the money with eBay.
they have a new way to file complaints for fee evasion. one of the bottom of the page things. i forget which.
But he said that the buyer can pick it up or make other transportation arrangements to eliminate or reduce the packing & shipping charges.
And look at the size of the thing. Shipping for something that big is NOT cheap. A cardboard box wouldn't be smart, it'll almost certainly require a wooden crate at least 2'x3'x5'. Unless the seller is a skilled carpenter, I'd expect him to pay a pro to crate it. All things considered, I think the seller's estimates for crating & shipping sound reasonable.
Actually I got those estimates from a local shipping store--that money would not be going to me at all. It's big and heavy, and there's no way around that.
I'll send it any way the buyer will pay for or they can pick it up and pay zero packing and shipping, but mailing it simply isn't going to be cheap: the final shipping estimate was 6ft x 3.5ft x 2.5ft, at 150 lbs. ~
sounds reasonable. let's see what he has to say.
damn, it sure won't be!
Open mouth,insert foot, eh? It wasn't a buy it now and there are 5 days left on the auction. Look before you leap. You owe him an apology .
No apology necessary, the packing and shipping costs were surprising to me too. I haven't ever had to ship anything that large before.
Also a correction: $25 of that "packing" WOULD be paid to me. To avoid putting any stress on the thin trailing edge or the engines, it has to be strapped to a board with ratcheting tie-downs and then the shipping store would build a "slotted crate" around that board. Their usual methods of packing wouldn't work for it because of its odd shape. The board cost $7 and the tie-down straps cost $15 for four, and /at least/ six tie-downs are needed to secure it. ...And they would need to build a box/crate for it at any rate: they don't have any standard ones that run that big. A slotted crate has a wooden bottom and frame, but cardboard sides. A crate would be all-wood and more expensive.
The model does have the two big holes in the bottom, but I am hesitant to try to use them for anchoring it for shipping because I don't know how strong the model is really built. And it has to be anchored well enough in a container BIG enough that if it is dropped on its side or top, the model won't move enough to touch any of the sides.
But if you can pick it up (or arrange for someone else to do so) then none of that matters. If the auction ends at 99 cents and the buyer comes and gets it, then it's going for 99 cents; there is no reserve. ~
Those holes should be strong enough as that is where it was attached to inside the wind tunnel.
where are you?
who are you?
I don't think they're good enough for shipping though. There's two sets of five holes on it. The "big" holes are a half-inch across, the front is about one inch deep and the rear is about 3/4-inch deep. The fiberglass is about 5/16" thick (around these holes) the insides of these holes are smooth and they bottom out into wood. The eight smaller holes are about 5/32" and look at least an inch deep or so, and have visible threads. So apparently the big holes were just to keep it from sliding horizontally, not for holding it down. If I inserted a couple pegs or metal rods through the board to help secure it, the model would still need to be held down firmly.
The location is Belleville IL, which is about a half-hour east of St Louis, MO.
I have a brother-in-law a half-hour west of St Louis... Nah, I couldn't put him through that.
The item description was incorrect, so I have ended the present auction and will re-list it again with a correct description. There were no bidders at the time it was ended.
I started trying to find out exactly what this model was used for but didn't get any response until today. I am informed by the Boeing St. Louis site historian that it was not in fact a wind tunnel model at all, but it was one of at least two dozen that were only used for display purposes. The people who last had it on-site claimed that it was a wind-tunnel model, and I had no reason to doubt it but did want to verify it.
The wind-tunnel testing models were smaller, made of all-metal and had ID numbers on them and it is very rare that any are discarded. For this particular program he said that all of the original wind-tunnel models were still listed as being in the company's posession. ~
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