Artist Mark Reigelman II has designed three permanent site-specific installations at San Diego International Airport, made from screens that showcase various plane designs.
Working together with the airport staff from the Arts Program and Design & Construction department, and San Diego Air and Space Museum, the artist came up with a design that represented the local aeronautic history.
The design included three different styles of planes, that would be installed as screens for the public to view. The development process of the planes started with a series of full-size 3D prints which allowed the artist to adjust scale and refine details based on the casting and installation parameters.
The 3D printed models allowed the aircrafts to be fully cast and cured using high impact fire retardant urethane, with a high performance acrylic urethane for the coatings.
Each airplane measures approximately 19” wide, vary in length from 10”-19”,and weighs approximately 4lbs each.
The installation took a team of 8 people 6 days to cut and tension over 90 stainless steel aircraft cables, before the installation team individually attached all 638 airplanes onto the tensioned cabled system.
The final installation consists of 3 massive screens, each measuring 15’ wide by 30’ tall, that overlook the main terminal at the San Diego International Airport.
