I'd been planning this site for years, but didn't know just what angle to take on
it. After seeing a picture of the cockpit of the B-17 Sentimental Journey on Willard Reese's excellent 457th Bomb Group web page, I
decided on the perfect format to present some of my Nose Art designs. I've
been doing Nose Art designs since the mid-1980's, but I've shown very few of
my designs on the internet. This is the first showing for many of these designs.
I've done hundreds of designs over the years, so I had to make a lot of
decisions as to what I should include on this site. I left the creation dates on the
individual pieces so as to give some sort of idea of the evolution of my designs.
Some of the early design may not have the degree of sophistication that some of my latest
pieces do, but I thought it was important to show both old and new designs as well
as a few recreations of actual WW II designs like "BOOTS", "That's My Baby" and
the one that really started it all for me, the Vargas inspired "Night Mission", still my all time favorite
piece of Nose Art from WW II.
It was almost by accident that I saw Night
Mission at all. One day at work, a co-worker, Cheryl Oliver was going through her
desk looking for something I needed for a job. As she opened one of the
drawers, there was this black and white photo of Night Mission that she had as
reference for a painting she was going to do on a leather bomber jacket for a
friend's dad. The dad was Len Meranasio who had flown on Night Mission in the
7th Airforce in the Pacific during the War. I've been designing and recreating
Nose Art ever since.
While not all Nose Art was of scantily clad babes, a lot of it was and for
reference the Nose artist would often use what was available and
that was for the most part Esquire Magazine's Pin-Ups. The two most prominent
Pin-Up artist at that time were George Petty and Alberto Vargas. Petty had the
distinction of having inspired the most famous piece of Nose Art of War when a
crew early in the War had one of his girls painted on their B-17, The Memphis
Belle. I don't think there is a person alive that hasn't heard of the Memphis Belle,
but not many know it was a Petty Girl that was the inspiration for the Nose Art design.
Many mistakenly attribute it to Vargas, but it was a Petty Girl. Varga Girls on
the other hand were the most numerous to appear on American aircraft. I don't think it was his
intention to have his girls painted on planes, but I think after he saw it was
being done, he designed many with that in mind. He was quoted as saying he never
felt more American than when he saw his artwork painted on the aircraft of his
adopted country during W.W. II. That must have been a real thrill for him to know
in some small way he helped to win the War.
----- COMMENTARY -----
I wish the Airforce would realize the importance Nose Art plays in terms of morale
for the air and ground crews. Images on the aircraft give the crews something to identify with, something to take pride in. The politically correct nazis
in society have all but doomed Pin-Up style Nose Art to history. In a land known
for it's freedom, it a shame that these self righteous holy rulers and politically
correct nazis have the last word when it comes to something like this. Some view Nose Art as harassment or creating a hostile work environment
or degrading to women, give me a break. According to one source, the Nose
Art, if it is tolerated at all must be genderless so as to not offend anyone.
Under some circumstances it has been tolerated in recent times of war, but after the
hostilities are over, the Nose Art comes off. The situation is this, for the most
part in a war situation, these men could at any given moment die. Why
should the hang-ups of a small group of simple minded people dictate what is
right and what is wrong for all, especially when those that are fighting, are fighting for the very freedoms that are being denied them. Ironic isn't?
To anyone in our nations service if they like any of these designs, you are welcome to use them. All I ask is that you send me a photo of the nose art on the plane. Best Wishes & good hunting!
