Since its inception, aviation has adopted many maritime traditions, including the increased predilection of sailors for various kinds of superstitions. So, following the fleet (“a woman on a ship in trouble”), one of the most bad omens that promises the pilot continuous trouble was the presence on board the aircraft or even next to it of female representatives (which, however, did not negate the favor of the pilots to girls outside the airport). Another feature the first aviators were their bright personality, which inevitably led to attempts to give a recognizable appearance to their aircraft. So, already in the First World War, various drawings and personal emblems of pilots appeared on the sides of airplanes, but in general, the puritanical attitude of society of that time to the image of the female body for a long time did not allow such pictures to appear on the sides of aircraft.
Oddly enough, Russian pilots became pioneers in depicting playful beauties on the fuselages. This happened after the February Revolution of 1917, when the authority of the command staff was greatly shaken, and everything or almost everything became possible. The Civil War, which began soon, only added freemen to the work of the airfield "painters", and the sides of the "Newports" and "Sopwiches" were full of girls in frivolous poses. Tellingly, this kind of painting did not take root at all in air force other states participating in the First World War, whose pilots were limited to less defiant painting, and British airplanes generally had an ascetic appearance, and differed from each other by a maximum of tactical signs consisting of geometric shapes.
The end of the First World War, and then civil war took with them the colors appearance aviation technology. The next arrival of onboard painting in the now Air Force of the Red Army took place during the Great Patriotic War, and this became widespread in the second half of it, after the Soviet pilots gained air superiority. However, under the watchful eye of political workers on the "Yaks" and "Lavochkin" Stalinist falcons, for the most part, drawings of representatives of the animal world (birds of prey or all kinds of lions and tigers) or political satire appeared. The author is aware of only two photographs of Soviet wartime aircraft with drawings that can be classified with a high degree of convention as erotic themes, and both photographs depict Airacobras obtained under Lend-Lease. Here it is, the pernicious influence of the West!
In this very West, meanwhile, side painting was in full bloom. By the beginning of World War II, a genre of drawing, called pin-up (pin-up - from “pin up”, i.e., it is understood that such a drawing is hung on the wall with the help of buttons), became extremely popular in the United States, the classic plot of which was a girl who got into an awkward situation and lost part of her clothes. Seductive beauties clung to thorny bushes with stockings, their dresses were inflated by sudden gusts of wind, they accidentally fell into the eyes of the artist while taking a shower or changing clothes.
If during the First World War, American pilots were not seen to be addicted to naked beauties, then with the onset of World War II, the pin-up began a victorious procession along the fuselages of US Air Force aircraft. The command preferred to turn a blind eye to art, rightly believing that there was no particular harm to military discipline in this, but there was a certain rise in morale. In the future, this tradition was preserved, and as soon as the US Air Force entered the battle, whether it was the war in Korea, Vietnam or Persian Gulf, painted "combat friends" immediately appeared on the fuselages of the aircraft. In the last couple of decades, the attitude towards fuselage art on erotic themes has become more loyal in other Air Forces of the world.
The Nieuport-23 fighter from the 22nd KAO of the Western Front with the image of a mermaid on board is the first known drawing in the nude style on an airplane (http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
A mermaid on board the Nieuport-17 presents a ribbon with a red star, apparently to the owner of the aircraft - the chief of aviation of the 9th Army of the Southern Front I.I. Semenov (http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
On this "Nieuport" of an unknown red pilot, a completely classic plot was transferred - "Venus of Urbino" by Titian
(http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
"Nieuport-17" from the 43rd reconnaissance squadron of the Turkestan Front, Bukhara, 1920. The drawing on board reproduces the painting by the French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre "Mary Magdalene in the Grotto" (http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
This Nieuport-24bis, captured in April 1919 by the Poles at the railway station of Vilna, from the 3rd Artillery Squadron, adorns an antique plot - the goddess Diana shooting from a bow. After the repair, the Poles included this fighter in their Air Force (http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
On board the Nieuport-24bis, another naked beauty wrings her hands in despair, Popov from the 44th reconnaissance detachment of the Western Front. In October 1919, the pilot flew in his fighter to the Poles. Having painted over the red stars, they did not touch the "work of art" (http://vikond65.livejournal.com)
Pilots of the 3rd Hells Angels Squadron of the American Volunteer Group against the background of their Tomahawk P-40C, Burma, 1941. Pilots in the hands of the squadron's emblem - a naked red female figurine with wings, designed to depict a fiend ( http://www.archives.gov)
"Aerocobra" squadron commander of the 69th Guards IAP Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Proshenkov, 1944-1945 A complex composition of marks of air victories and two female portraits is extremely uncharacteristic for the Red Army Air Force (http://waralbum.ru)
Pilots of the 102nd Guards IAP on the wing of the Aerocobra, the cockpit door of which is decorated with a pin-up picture. Judging by the available photographs of other aircraft of the regiment, the process of “decorating” the fighters was quick and efficient - the American magazine that came to the USSR along with the ferry pilots was fraternally sorted into pages and pasted on the cockpit doors (author's collection)
"Lady in the Dark" - Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter, named after the popular musical (http://www.indianamilitary.org)
First Lieutenant Richard O. Lehnert with his mechanic on the wing of a Lightning P-38J California Cutie. 55th Fighter Squadron USAF, England, June 1944 (http://www.americanairmuseum.com)
American pilots admire a masterpiece of fine art aboard a Douglas A-20 Havok bomber from the 410th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group. Great Britain, summer 1944 ()
American naval pilots of the Second World War dabbled in airborne painting in general and pin-up in particular an order of magnitude less often than their land counterparts, but there are no rules without exceptions. The photo shows a line of naval Hellcats F6F-5N from the night fighter squadron VMF (N) -451, each of which carries its own pattern on the nose
(http://www.zone-five.net)
Night fighter P-61 with its own name "Moon Happy". For someone, but for the Japanese bombers operating at night, the meeting with the Black Widows did not promise any happiness!
(http://www.modelersalliance.com)
A transport Douglas C-53 "D-Day Doll" carries a graphic commemorating the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
(http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org)
Lieutenant Guy Bordelon is the only one among the US naval pilots who took part in the Korean War, who achieved the title of ace, against the backdrop of his Corsair F4U-5N "Annie-Mo". All his victories were declared at night, in battles with light Po-2s and Yak-18s used as bombers (
Aircraft Nose Art - the art of drawing patterns on the fuselage of an aircraft - became most widespread in American aviation during the Second World War.
The plots were different: patriotic themes, heroes of comics and Disney cartoons, but above all, of course, girls.
Nose Art is not something fundamentally new - it has its roots in the ancient custom of the army to adorn themselves: knights put on rich armor, sailors installed rostra on ships, Indians painted their faces ...
Aviation nose art originated with military aviation. Here is the airplane of the Italian World War I ace Francesco Baracca: 
(they say that this horse later migrated to the emblem of Ferrari cars)
The heyday of Nose Art was World War II.
Almost all american planes had their own names. There are no exact statistics, but, apparently, about half of the aircraft wore Nose Art. 
Zodiac signs. Scales 
and Cancer 
Nose Art was approved by the Air Force command as raising morale and providing some psychological support to the crew.
There were also restrictions. Drawings, as a rule, were worn only by combat aircraft, and in naval aviation, Nose Art was banned altogether. 
American psychologists who studied the phenomenon of Aircraft Nose Art believe that in this way the aircraft was humanized, reminded the pilot of home and peaceful life, and served as a kind of psychological protection from war. Many planes bore the names of wives, girlfriends, mothers.
Captain Ervin C. Ethell and his wife Jenny 
"Interim Widow" 
Corporal Ruby Newell - the most beautiful girl in the unit - at her portrait: 
The crews painted the planes exclusively at their own expense. This was done by both amateurs and pros who served in parts - former artists, cartoonists. 
“Our pilot's wife once told us a legend about a stork that lived on an island in the Pacific Ocean and flew around a thousand surrounding islands every day to wish them well. We immediately liked the story, and for two quarts of Irish whiskey, one soldier drew us this stork on board. 
(Personally, I would not give a drop of whiskey for this drawing)
Pin-up girls were much more common than real wives and girlfriends.
Often these works were copies of magazine drawings. 
(this crew made 90 sorties, which is a lot by American standards)
As noted, in the Pacific theater of operations, the girls for some reason were much lighter dressed than in Europe. 
Night mission 
The most common pattern Aircraft Nose Art - shark mouth - invented during the First World War. 
Cards, dice, four-leaf clover are symbols of good luck. 
I wonder what these camels mean... 
"Difficult child": 
(this plane was filmed in the movie "Amendment 22")
After the Vietnam War, Nose Art practically disappears and gradually returns only in the 1980s. It was considered that this restores the continuity of glorious martial traditions.
Princess Leia 
The cat is setting the rocket on the MiG-29: 
In 2007, the British Ministry of Defense banned the use of images of girls as potentially offensive to female personnel.
Now the procedure is complicated: first, the crew submits the Nose Art sketch to their commander, and he must coordinate the drawing with the wing command. 
UPD 9.12.12 It turns out that the camels on the fuselage mean that the main route ran through the Himalayas. The number of camels - the number of departures, the camel that turned the other way - the crew had to turn back due to an engine malfunction (
The tradition of putting pictures on combat vehicles dates back to the First World War, the Germans were its ancestors, but the Americans supported this tradition and deeply developed it. This "rock" painting is called Nose Art
The heyday of Nose Art was the Second World War - almost all American aircraft had their own names, and, apparently, about half of the aircraft wore drawings on the nose. The plots were very different, but most often they were cartoon characters or girls drawn in pin-up style. Nose Art was approved by the Air Force command as raising morale and providing some psychological support to the crew. American psychologists who studied the phenomenon of Aircraft Nose Art believe that in this way the aircraft was humanized, reminded the pilot of home and peaceful life, and served as a kind of psychological protection from war. Nowadays, pilots flying historic aircraft also apply Nose Art to their aircraft, either in classic form or creating original images.
Aviation Nose Art originated along with military aviation. Here is the airplane of the Italian ace of World War I Francesco Baracca
The heyday of Nose Art was World War II.
Almost all American aircraft had their own names. There are no exact statistics, but, apparently, about half of the aircraft wore Nose Art.
Most convenient place To accommodate Nose Art naturally are the noses of bombers. There are many places, there is where to turn around. Boeing B-17G N9323Z
Boeing B-17G N900RW.
Boeing B-17G N3193G and girls again.
Liberator has even more space for pictures! Consolidated B-24A (LB-30) Liberator N24927
True, this aircraft was later repainted in a protective color and such graphics appeared on it.
And this is "Strawberry Bitch" from the Air Force Museum in Dayton. Consolidated B-24D Liberator 42-72843.
"Betty's Dream" (?) B-25J N5672V
Sad Angela, TB-25N N345BG.
Apache Princess, B-25J N1943J.
Nose Art was approved by the Air Force command as raising morale and providing some psychological support to the crew.
There were also restrictions. Drawings, as a rule, were worn only by combat aircraft, and in naval aviation, Nose Art was banned altogether.
Zodiac signs. Scales
Eagle with a bomb. B-25C N3774.
Corporal Ruby Newell - the most beautiful girl in the unit - at her portrait:
The crews painted the planes exclusively at their own expense. This was done by both amateurs and pros who served in parts - former artists, cartoonists.
Russian Get Ya! B-25J N747AF.
Pin-up girls were much more common than real wives and girlfriends. Often these works were copies of magazine drawings.
As noted, in the Pacific theater of operations, the girls for some reason were much lighter dressed than in Europe.
Night mission
Douglas B-26 N7705C
The most common pattern Aircraft Nose Art - shark mouth - invented during the First World War.
The huge nose air intake on the P-40 aircraft made it possible to draw such impressive shark mouths. Curtiss P-40N Warhawk NL40PN.
On the Mustangs, the nose was narrower, and their Nose Art often crawled under the cockpit. Although shark mouths also met. P-51D Mustang NL68JR.
Kid with tommigan. P-51D Mustang NL151HR.
Late Creation, Machine Gun Big Boss on a racing Grumman F7F-3 Tigercat NX805MB.
On Thunderbolts, it was convenient to draw Nose Art on massive engine hoods. Pink Dumbo on P-47D 45-49167, Air Force Museum.
Neanderthal, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt NX47DA.
The Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton has a large collection of Nose Art graphics in the form of fuselage skin sheets taken from various modifications of scrapped B-52 bombers. As a reminder of long gone, but turbulent times.
Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon N7670C.
Transport aircraft. Despite the rather large size, the nose of the famous DC-3 is relatively small and it is rather difficult to draw a grandiose Nose Art on it. DC-3 N47HL.
Cards, dice, four-leaf clover are symbols of good luck.
"Delivery of Generals". DC-3 N7772 at the EAA Museum.
Smaller transporters, S-45s, also did not lag behind their larger counterparts in Nose Art. Beech C-45G N7694C.
Beech C-45H N167ZA.
Redhead. Beech C-45H N9550Z.
"Difficult child"
After the Vietnam War, Nose Art practically disappears and gradually returns only in the 1980s. It was considered that this restores the continuity of glorious martial traditions.
Modern original art. Dee Howard 500N500HP.
The cat is aiming a rocket at the MiG-29
In 2007, the British Ministry of Defense banned the use of images of girls as potentially offensive to female personnel. Now the procedure is complicated: first, the crew submits the Nose Art sketch to their commander, and he must coordinate the drawing with the wing command.
The art of drawing on aircraft fuselages - nose art - appeared during the First World War.
Californian art historian and antiquarian Bruce Herman argues that the designs on the aircraft are a continuation of European chivalric heraldry traditions.
“The pilots of the First World War most often themselves belonged to ancient noble families and, perhaps, seriously perceived themselves as new knights. They even had their own special knightly “honor code”. During the Middle Ages, knights painted their shields - they painted family names on them. coat of arms. It is here that one should look for the origins of the tradition of painting military aircraft, "says Herman.
It is worth noting that the painting of aircraft during the First World War is highly professional and is of real artistic value.
"Most pilots from the beginning of the century before the war received a professional artistic education," Herman explains.
During the First World War, the pilots did not directly paint the aircraft themselves. Coats of arms, pictures and mottos were drawn on canvas, which was then attached to the wing or tail of the combat vehicle. At auctions, the price for such works of art can reach several hundred thousand dollars.
The Second World War
With the outbreak of World War II, the art of painting combat aircraft has undergone dramatic changes. Classical plots and classical art disappeared forever from the sides of fighters and bombers. His place was taken by popular cartoon characters.
The fashion for the "war paint" of aircraft quickly won the hearts of pilots during the Second World War.
"Americans were the most uninventive, but the most active artists," says Herman.
Few people know that the founder of animation - Walt Disney - was also the "godfather" of nose art. After the outbreak of war, the leadership of the US Air Force hired artists from the Disney studio solely to paint combat aircraft.
During the war, the Disney studio created free sketches of drawings for coloring planes, tanks, and even patches on uniforms. drew not only for the US military, the sketches were requested by military units from the UK, Poland, China, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and France. For the duration of the war, Disney provided five artists for the needs of the army. During World War II, 1,200 drawings for the military were drawn at the Disney studio. The most popular hero was Donald Duck. The only cartoon character who has never been drawn on military equipment was Bambi.
Disney himself, who passed as a soldier in the First world war, in combat conditions, he amused himself by drawing on the helmets of his comrades. However, admirers of Disney's work did not live only in the United States.
"Disney was furious when he learned that several dozen Luftwaffe fighters had his Mikiy Mouse painted on the fuselage," says Herman.
In addition to animation, the main source of inspiration for war artists was Esquire magazine. Most often, the pictures of Esquire artist Alberto Vargas were reproduced on the fuselages of bombers and fighters.
Nose art 1945-2003
After the end of the Second World War, nose art gained wide popularity. Now about the pictures that decorate combat aircraft, they know not only in the sky, but also on the ground.
In the West, extensive catalogs of symbols and drawings made on aircraft during various military conflicts are published.
The plot of the picture most often depends on the nature of the conflict.
It is worth noting that there are practically no unpainted aircraft, for example, in the US Air Force. There are even pictures on top-secret B-2 and F-117 bombers. But in order to avoid misunderstandings, their pilots draw exclusively on the inside of the bomb bay doors or other surfaces that are invisible to the authorities.
Officially, the only air force unit allowed to paint aircraft is the 23rd Fighting Group "Flying Tigers".
After the start of the First World War, the pilots went into all serious trouble. Who painted aces on iron birds, who painted skulls, and one Italian - a horse (the same one that became the emblem of Ferrari). And, of course, it could not do without women.
Of course, such aircraft decorations annoyed the guardians of morality, but they had to endure - it is difficult to preach morality to a 20-year-old professional killer who will burn half the sky tomorrow in an airplane.
When the war ended, the screws were tightened. The army is order, everything here should be monotonous, trimmed, painted and sprinkled with sand. However, as soon as the next world turmoil began, history repeated itself.
The biggest connoisseurs of aircraft art turned out to be American pilots. There is a logical explanation for this. The British painted their bombers in camouflage colors and flew at night when few could see them. True, it was also not particularly possible to see the target properly, but when bombing cities, special accuracy is not required. The Americans, terribly proud of their Norden sight, flew during the day, and in the sunny sky such a bandura as the B-17 would not have been disguised as a cloud even by Winnie the Pooh. When the command realized that the pilots were massively drawing some kind of abnormal disgrace on the planes, it was too late to forbid. Only evil spirits and gambling were banned - that is, devils and cards were asked to be redrawn.
Of course, each crew wanted their plane to have not a sower in the style of Ostap Bender, but a real work of art. This was best done by those who were friends with the brush and paint while still in civilian life.
For example, in the Pacific, in the 20th Mapping Squadron, Al Merkling, who had worked as an illustrator and toy designer before the war, served with the rank of corporal. Soon, drawings not provided for by the charter began to appear on the surrounding bombers. The first was Lieutenant John Wooten's bomber jacket. During the flight from the USA to Australia, the plane was so skewed in turbulence that the combat vehicle had to be patched up even before the front. On this occasion, the crew chipped in and asked Merkling to draw something for them. Al and drew - Patched Up Piece, in the sense of "patch on patch." Everyone liked the picture, and people lined up for Merkling. Until the end of the war, he painted at least twelve B-24s and a couple of smaller cars.
On the other side of the planet, fighters from the 334th squadron were lucky. Their mechanic, Don Allen, had finished art school in Cleveland before the war. Drawing on fighter jets was, of course, more difficult than on bombers, but Allen succeeded. By the way, he did not interfere with art with pornography. Therefore, when the pilots asked: “Don, draw me such a nude that the Fritz’s eyes would pop into his forehead!” Allen replied: “Calm down! Let's make it beautiful and not vulgar! And so painted almost forty aircraft. After the war, he became a cool commercial artist, the head of the studio. Somehow, in the mood, he redrawn part of his military drawings and donated it to the Aviation Museum in Dover, Delaware. If you are in those places, don't miss it.
Don Allen draws "Miss Dallas"
Anne Hayward, who worked at the base of the 385th Bombardment Group, began with drawings on the wall of the pilots' club, and then moved on to pilots' jackets and the planes themselves. Apparently, the guys liked both the result and the process itself. In fact, the life of a bomber is boring and monotonous, every day is the same thing: "Messers", anti-aircraft guns, crawled on my word of honor and one wing. And here in the midst of dull everyday life beautiful girl the plane paints you. The pilots of the group even wrote a collective letter with a request to release her from other work and provided Ann with a special jeep.
Of course, talented artists who could come up with an original drawing were in short supply during the war. In this case, ready-made stories were taken. In the top was Alberto Vargas from Esquire magazine. Saying "pin-up", it is usually he who is remembered. The owners of the magazine then showed profitable patriotism - they sent out as many as nine million copies to the military for free. Just imagine: poor GIs are sitting in some hole in the middle Pacific Ocean, where even sharks swim only on holidays, and here in the next package - bam, a magazine with half-dressed beauties. Fighting spirit immediately hardens and rises to unattainable heights.
Well, who didn’t have enough magazines, copy-pasted from the posters of famous actresses, dancers and just pretty girls. It turned out sometimes even remotely not like the original, but the guys liked it.
