Recently I changed the contents of my lounge. The old sofa and chair were removed and taken away and then a new sofa was delivered. It was all quite stressful really but I’m getting used to the new stuff. One indirect result of losing the chair was the door to the dining room now opens to about 30cm away from closed position when measured at the largest gap – I don’t know what angular measure this is. I needed a doorstop.
So, while I thought about what type of thing to use as a doorstop I used a 1kg cube of tungsten that I had already bought. I’m going to use it as a thing of beauty and also at work in those lessons when I teach about density. But I didn’t want it to be the primary doorstop. So I started looking at aircraft stuff on eBay.
I really like the idea of aircraft based furniture but it’s quite expensive and always custom made so it’s not the sort of thing I can really afford. But for a doorstop I knew I just needed a lump of something that’s quite heavy and looks cool. I did see a brake piston from a 737 on eBay but then while scrolling past the tables and desks made from aircraft parts I found the perfect thing.
This is the a wheel from a Harrier aircraft. It’s a strange one, because along with the B52, the Harrier has wheels that drop down from the wing tips. The main wheels don’t give enough stability so there are extras from the wings. I like this object. I’m sure it’s going to bring me plenty of pleasure just by looking at it.