Old Fashioned Nose Art - Planes of the Past

Growing up as a military dependant on an Air Force base has some definite advantages. One of those is access to the flight line and airplanes.

My dad was a boom operator on the KC-137 Stratotanker for twenty years and many times throughout my childhood he took me to see some of his favorite airplanes. His love of flying and airplanes carried over to his family life where he taught us about the historical value of nose art amongst other military plane related things.

Although I appreciated his sentiment and shared in his excitement I had no real attachments to the nose art he showed me until my oldest daughter was born.

My dad had been stationed in England during the Gulf War in the latter part of my pregnancy. Their assignment was to refuel the bombers in the air safely away from the front lines.

The day my daughter was born, my dad and the rest of the flight crew were about to board an older plane that had been customized with nose art. According to my father the nose art said, "Ol' Grandad." The flight crew's navigator told my father, "Maybe today's the day you become a grandfather."

At the time, those of us at home in the states weren't aware of the nose art on the plane they were about to fly but sure enough my daughter arrived in this world before they landed. Talk about a coincidence. To this day nose art holds a special meaning to me more than it ever had before.

Nose art got its start in 1913 when a sea monster was seen on the nose of an Italian flying boat. It wasn't until WWII, though, that nose art became the popular military cultural icon it has come to be known as.

Flight crews at the time were the ones to name their planes and so naturally it was the flight crews that adorned them with their own logos. Some crews painted personal insignia on the nose while others opted for cartoons, pictures of pin-up girls, patriotic symbols, lucky symbols, home town logos, famous movie titles, animals and fictional super heroes.

True nose art took off during WWII and is considered by military history buffs as the golden age of nose art. It was during this golden age that civilian artists began being hired to create master pieces on the planes.

It was one such artist that painted the famous shark's teeth on the P-38 in 1941. The shark's teeth design became the most recognized form of nose art and appeared in many WWII movies.

Another world famous piece of nose art is the B-17 Flying Fortress's renowned Memphis Belle painted by Tony Starcer of the 91^st bomb group. The Memphis Belle was so inspiring that it was the reason behind two movies. One in 1944, a documentary titled, Memphis Belle, A Story of The Flying Fortress. Another movie was made about the Belle in 1990 simply dubbed Memphis Belle.

Strategic Air Command didn't sanction the artistic endeavors of flight crews, pilots and ground crews and their complaints went unheeded as the popular art continued to crop up on new planes. Part of the appeal was the fact that the military didn't condone or enforce regulations regarding individual artistic expression which fueled a great many secretly created anonymous pieces.

Living far away from family and friends, many of the nose artists simply longed for a connection to their personal lives and accomplished it through their designs. Of course, being an American Military man, revenge on the enemy also played a part in the extensive library of nose art as depictions of skeletons and angels of death began appearing on the planes noses.

Nose art today is going strong thanks to the negative feelings associated with the current war in Iraq. The Air Force has unofficially sanctioned the use of pin-up girls and nose art once again but has laid down some rules regarding the conservative nature of the designs themselves, meaning that from now on the girls painted on the planes must be fully clothed.

The history of nose art is being preserved in spite of the fact that these old planes are being destroyed at Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in conjunction with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Planes were and are being cut into pieces; however the panels containing nose art are being saved as historical evidence of military graffiti and a time line of past battles.