Monday, June 10, 2013

Airplane Decorative Art


The desire to personalize airplanes probably has been around from the beginnings of aviation.  For instance, there was a time when military airplanes were decorated with art work by their air crews.  Often, in those pre-p.c. days, these decorations were risqué and even lurid. 


Sometimes the airplane name was on the blunt side:




Or with double entendres:


 Still others used patriotic themes:


I wonder if these would be allowed today.  I wonder also how the Generals and such felt about this; and what Mom and Pop felt about their son posing against the Strawberry Bitch.

When commercial aviation developed in the United States, the emergent airlines went for a totally uniform look, often using reds, whites, and blues.  One exception was the now-defunct Braniff Airlines, which used their jet planes with individual color schemes.  On one occasion, they even called on artist Alexander Calder to design a color scheme for one of their planes.  This was an exceedingly first-rate creation:


However, airplane nose art reached its most surreal with a Hello Kitty-themed plane when EVA Airlines put it into service.  Unfortunately, it was used only on Japan routes.




6 comments:

MarkD60 said...

I believe I saw that "Strawberry Bitch" in an air museum in Ohio when I was a lad. I was amazed they used the word "Bitch" in public.
You failed to post Austin Powers 747!

TexWisGirl said...

yeah, i'm thinking we'd need some beefy guys on some planes, too, these days...

Hell Hound said...

Those World War Two bombers had some great primitive art on them. Some books give illustrations of them.

Mike said...

Commercial planes have less paint on them these days because the bean counters figured out how much fuel it costs to haul 200 pounds of paint around.

Bilbo said...

Mark is right ... the "Strawberry Bitch" is on display at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. And Mike is right, too ... modern commercial aircraft have much less paint because of the extra weight it brings and fuel it burns. I like TexWisGirl's comment, too ... now that we have female combat pilots, it seems only fair that we should have some beefcake nose art. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which PC trumps fun. Too bad.

Cloudia said...

Oh I adore this nose art!


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