The art of Erik Lindbergh nods to the achievements of his grandfather.

Sanded and polished to a baby-soft finish, the honey brown madrone wood wings of the model floatplane reflect the warmth of its beaten copper nose.

The cockpit is a soft, red velvet-lined cradle fit for a babe.

The piece by Erik Lindbergh recalls the exploits of his grandfather, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, but the “found” wood he uses recalls a lesser known side of his ancestor.

“I’ve always used scrap wood or other wood other people would leave behind,” said Lindbergh, citing his grandfather’s love of conservation and the environment. “It inspires me.”

On Friday, the island artist opens an exhibition of his handmade wooden furniture and bronze-cast space- and airplane-themed sculptures at Winslow’s Island Gallery, with the display running through Oct. 31.

Lindbergh was born in California but grew up on Bainbridge Island, graduating from Bainbridge High School in 1983. He used to take walks on the beach and come back with armfuls of driftwood whose interesting shapes intrigued his imagination.

“Some people see things in clouds, I see things in wood,” he said.

His first try at furniture was around 1992 when he lived on Marrowstone Island while working as a flight instructor in Port Townsend.

Without any woodworking experience or tools, it took more than a year to complete.

The more-recent “Floatplane Cradle” and the “Locust Bench” are made of woods from Bainbridge.

Two near identical slabs, too irregular for most uses make up the bench’s side panels and legs. They were once the trunk of a Locust tree that Lindbergh’s then-landlady in Eagledale wanted to cut off because it was shading her garden.

Lindbergh agreed to do the job if he could keep the wood.

He was commissioned to craft an airplane cradle, and modeled it after a Lockheed 8 Sirius that his grandparents flew to the Far East in 1931.

Erik Lindbergh was never pressured to fly, and didn’t discover how “cool” it was until age 24. With all the flying he has done recently for public relations for Lancair-Columbia Aircraft, his art has turned from furniture to aerospace sculptures.

He ventured into bronze casting just last year when his cedar-carved rocket – futuristic yet retro-looking, à la Flash Gordon – attracted competing buyers.

Art is just one activity that keeps Lindbergh busy. He is one of the founding board members of the X Prize Foundation, which promotes commercial and private passenger space flight and awarded the Ansari X Prize last October of $10 million to the first private manned space flight, SpaceShipOne.

Lindbergh believes competition can inspire innovation. He points out his grandfather’s famous New York to Paris flight in 1927 was to win a $25,000 prize, which itself inspired seven teams to spend a total of $400,000 to win the prize.

Lindbergh recreated his grandfather’s famous flight in 2002 and raised over a million dollars for three nonprofits groups he is active with: the X Prize Foundation, the Arthritis Foundation and the Lindbergh Foundation – of which he is the vice chairman – which strives for a balance technological innovation with environmental preservation.

Charles Lindbergh is less known as the innovator of the “perfusion pump,” which helps keep human tissue alive outside the body, was a precursor to the heart-lung machine.

In World War II, his commanders noticed that Charles always returned from his flight missions with more fuel than anyone else. He shared his strategems, allowing P38s to double their flying range, which is said to have helped turn the tide of the Pacific war.

“To me, the more profound things (my grandfather) worked on were lesser known,” Lindbergh said. “My grandparents strove to preserve balance between rapid technological advances and the preservation of the environment.

“The fulcrum is the quality of life. Technology can harm the quality of life, but we can’t forsake it – nor the environment.”

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Taking flight

Erik Lindbergh’s “Dreams of Flight” runs Sept. 30 through Oct. 31 at the Island Gallery, 100-106 Madison Ave. A reception to meet the artist will be held from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 30 at the gallery. For more information, call 780-9500 or see www.theislandgallery.net.