The art of recycling airplane parts Certain used airplane parts never get to be recycled, or broken up either. Pierre Farman gives them a second life by turning them into works of art... This piece is a turbine that has been mounted on a table that moves, can turn, and which will be fitted with a glass top later. This turbine component, transformed into a coffee table, is just part of Pierre’s world. From his shop in the Rue du Bac in Paris, the descendant of the industrialist Farman sells all kinds of objects originating from aircraft. I was born a little into the business because we were aircraft manufacturers - not me of course, but my grandfather and my two great uncles; and people often pulled my leg about it, but I take it as a sort of compliment. In his shop there are turbines, cabin parts, and also propellers, which remind us of the work of a certain Brancuzi Brancuzi came to us at the factory several times, but not only to us, and his famous sculpture "Bird in Space" is an interpretation of the helix of an ion. It was a time when aviation, just as now, was the seat of imagination and extraordinary fantasy. Fantasies that are now in customers’ homes all around the world. The items for sale at Pierre Farman’s gallery vary between 100 and 2,000 euros, and each piece comes directly from a factory or a plane. We had Ratier-Figeac as propeller manufacturer, and there are a lot of things that come from Ratier, which they originally discarded. Moreover, you can see that there are parts that are badly corroded, and which naturally, could not be used in a ‘plane. But before putting them on show, Pierre comes to this Parisian 11th arrondissement workshop. Inside, Jean-Pierre Carpentier has also been highly enthusiastic about aircraft parts for five years now. With his co-worker, he will restore them and give them a final brilliant appearance. They are still in poor condition because they are pieces that have left the flying domain because either the aircraft no longer flies, they have undergone a shock, or quite simply are worn out. I.E. they cannot be used for their original purposes, and that’s when I recuperate them and give them a final treatment to produce the mirror finish as you can see here. Once processed, the parts will be transformed into decorative objects. From here they go to Pierre’s, or Jean-Pierre’s shop, to the delight of bargain hunters of all kinds.