Ever since armed forces took to the sky military pilots have decorated their aircraft with painted slogans, pictures, names and countless other symbols. The original purpose was to help identity friendly units in combat (WWI German ace Manfred von Richthofen painted his airplanes bright red, hence the sobriquet “Red Baron”) but over the years this practice developed into an art form that is sometimes considered folk art and may be compared to graffiti. With respect to military aircraft it is known as “nose art.”
An early example showed up on the Farman 40, a French observation airplane used during WWI; its blunt nose (the engine and propellor were in the rear) provided an outstanding canvas for the depiction of a grinning skull. This was probably intended to laugh in the face of the short life expectancy of combat airmen during the war.
An early example showed up on the Farman 40, a French observation airplane used during WWI; its blunt nose (the engine and propellor were in the rear) provided an outstanding canvas for the depiction of a grinning skull. This was probably intended to laugh in the face of the short life expectancy of combat airmen during the war.
Fighter pilots of the time were great fans of nose art but were inhibited somewhat by exhaust pipes, cooling-air vents and other structures on the forward fuselages of their airplanes. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the leading American ace in WWI, had no room on the nose of his Spad XIII fighter for his famous “Hat in the Ring” Squadron emblem so he had it painted on the fuselage aft of the cockpit.
Fast forward to the Second World War and meet James MacLachlan, an RAF Hawker Hurricane pilot who lost his left arm in aerial combat but came back to fight again with the help of an artificial limb. He turned his misfortune into a display of simplified nose art advertising the ubiquitous “V for Victory” sign that kept the Allies’ hopes alive throughout the war.
As the popularity and artistic innovation of nose art blossomed in military aviation during the war years some of the artists used structural configurations of certain aircraft as canvases for their work. Perhaps the best example is the “shark’s-mouth” design that appeared on the Curtiss P-40’s lower forward fuselage; the airscoop was the right shape in the right place and when decorated, made the airplane look like an attacking shark. Two malevolent eyes completed the picture, suggesting strongly that this airplane could do bad things to the enemy. Aaargh!
The P-40 wasn’t the only airplane that used the shark motif to suggest the presence of an angry predator…the Luftwaffe got into the act with similar nose art on some of their ME-110 twin-engine fighters.
Two years after the end of World War Two, then-Captain Chuck Yeager was chosen to fly the Bell X-1 rocket-powered plane through the so-called “sound barrier.” Launched from the belly of a modified B-29, Yeager fired the rocket engine whereupon the X-1 accelerated to Mach 1.06 and scored the first manned supersonic flight. “Glamorous Glennis” (Yeager’s wife’s nickname) was for a short time the fastest nose art in history.
Two post-war US presidents contributed to the nose art genre by having their airplanes decorated with tasteful images. Harry Truman got the ball rolling with his C-118 (nee DC-6) named “Independence” and the Army Air Corps artists went one step farther…they transformed the nose of the airplane into the head of a bald eagle, our national bird. Imagine the copilot’s side window open (as in the photo) and the nosewheel doors closed and voila…the eagle’s head with its hooked beak takes on an aggressive demeanor.
Dwight Eisenhower’s personal transport was a Lockheed Constellation named “Columbine” after the state flower of Colorado, first-lady Mamie’s birthplace. The nose art in this case was done tastefully with a feminine touch.
A near mid-air collision in 1953 that involved the Columbine (with Ike on board) and a commercial airliner with an identical number resulted in the establishment of a unique call sign—“Air Force One”—for any aircraft carrying the president…that rule is still on the books.
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