Aerospace Replicas - Vehicles and Structures

Many fine museums around the world showcase and preserve original flight vehicles from historic aerospace endeavors and programs. These one-of-a-kind artifacts tell true stories of daring and technological achievement, and they are priceless in their worth. Because of their uniqueness, however, these aerospace artifacts are relatively few in number, and there remain many more venues that also have a mission to tell these stories. When an original is not available, a high-detail, purpose-built replica can take its place. The use of full size, high-quality replicas have an impact all their own; they convey true size, weight, feel, color, and texture, in a way that is experienced. In doing so, they inspire awe while illustrating the story that is being told. Guard-Lee is a company dedicated to the production of such replicas.

        If your application requires a full scale model of a spacecraft or aircraft, Guard-Lee can build it for you!

Below is a photographic collection of just some of the spacecraft and aerospace vehicles that Guard-Lee has reproduced completely and in full scale for clients in the past:

Space Shuttle Atlantis, 2013

                                        Special photography in this article by Mitch Tartock, Guard-Lee, Inc.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction opened in June 2013 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. Here Atlantis is displayed in grand and dynamic fashion, and the surrounding exhibits and interactive devices tell the story of the Space Shuttle and its role in history and science.

Prior to Atlantis arriving at the display venue, preparations to get the Orbiter ready for display included work by Guard-Lee:

Main Engine Augments: When the Shuttle Program ended, flight-worthy Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) were retained by NASA for future program use. The retired Orbiters were given “test” and “engineering use only” SSME nozzles to complete them for display. Guard-Lee designed and applied artistic treatments for these engines to make them appear as flown articles. The treatment processes were eventually applied to all three retired orbital vehicles: Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis.

Full Scale Airlock Representation with Docking Adapter: This piece was built at Guard-Lee and installed in Atlantis by Shuttle technicians in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at Kennedy Space Center.

Four Replica Payload Bay Cameras: These were also installed while Atlantis was in the OPF.

Full Scale RMS Arm Representation: This piece was built at Guard-Lee and installed in Atlantis just prior to the opening of the venue.

                 In addition, Guard-Lee designed and built the following displays at Space Shuttle Atlantis:

                                                     Full scale Hubble Space Telescope, suspended

                                                 ISS Crawl-thru 1/3 scale model, partially suspended

                      Full scale ISS Destiny module with partial interior experiment racks, used as video enclosure

                                            Full size split Shuttle Cockpit, as a sit-in photo-opportunity

                                                       EMU space suit with partial RMS, suspended

                                                     EMU space suit with MMU backpack, suspended  

Working with the primary exhibit contractor, Nassal, Guard-Lee performed the following cooperative and components efforts:

                             Stabilization of the artifact “Beanie Cap” from one of the Shuttle Launch Towers

                            Stabilization of a complete artifact SSME, an engine having flown on three missions

                                           Refurbishment of a scale Space Shuttle “Full Stack” model

                            Creation of Shuttle switchpanels for the interactive simulators in the SSA “sim bay”.