Nose Art

[Blue Sky]

Gli ultimi due non si vedono

 

Nose art painted by unknown artist 001

12th Bomb Group (Medium), 82nd Bomb Squadron

North Africa or Italy

 

 

Prop Wash B-25 43-27517 82nd Bomb Squadron

This B25 is believed to have been transferred later to 340th Bomb Group (Medium) but the date is not known. Anyone with information on the artist or on this B25 and its crews (in either unit) is asked to make contact.

[Ospite intruder]

Gli ultimi due non si vedono

 

Ripassati da photobucket, speriamo reggano...

 

Jeff Brown standing in the main cabin doorway of his pride and joy [tail number unknown] during Operation Desert Shield / Storm (1990-1991).

[Blue Sky]

Ripassati da photobucket, speriamo reggano...

Scusami ma perchè non hai corretto i post già esistenti, è assolutamente inutile postarne altri per le stesse immagini! <_>

 

 

Nose art painted by unknown artist 001

12th Bomb Group (Medium), 82nd Bomb Squadron

North Africa or Italy

 

 

Problem Child B-25 serial unknown 82nd Bomb Squadron

Anyone with information on the artist or on this B25 and its crew is asked to make contact.

[Ospite intruder]

"Charlie Chopper", Vietnam, ca. 1969

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by unknown artist 001

12th Bomb Group (Medium), 82nd Bomb Squadron

North Africa or Italy

 

 

 

Bam's Mam B-25 serial unknown 82nd Bomb Squadron

Anyone with information on the artist or on this B25 and its crew is asked to make contact.

[Ospite intruder]

71-20955, was known as the "Widow Maker". On 27 April 1983, 71-20955 was performing a mission to an island mountain top in support of the United States Air Force (USAF). The mountain top was never intended for a Chinook to land on with all four gear on the ground. Cargo missions to the mountain were usually performed by doing a two wheel landing. During this particular mission the crew decided they could put all four gear on the landing pad. Upon touching down the forward blades contacted the mountain side next to the landing pad. It chopped approximately three feet off of each forward blade and the sudden stoppage damaged the combining transmission (C-Box). The aircraft lurched to the left and very nearly went over the side of the cliff. The recovery took several days. All three forward blades had to be replaced along with the C-Box. It was decided not to replace the forward transmission. Instead, it was inspected using a borescope and determined that it was "OK" to operate. Getting the parts, tools and personnel to the site was a logistical nightmare. They couldn't be air lifted to the landing pad because those involved were afraid that the rotor wash would send 71-20955 over the side. The parts and pieces had to be dropped off nearby and then hand carried to the site. One can imagine carrying an 800 pound C-Box up and down a rugged mountain side. In addition to repairing the aircraft, the mountain side where the blades made contact had to be excavated. Emergency Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel were brought in to blast some of the rock away so the new blades would clear at next engine startup. Note the picture below with the plywood against the side of the aircraft. It was placed there to protect the aircraft from flying debris blasted away from the mountain. When the aircraft was finally repaired and the mountain cleared away, 71-20955 started up. The helicopter was immediately lifted off of the pad. The stability of the ground underneath the forward gear was in question so it was decided that the best course of action was to get into the air as soon as possible. The aircraft was then flown to the beach below and additional maintenance performed before returning to home station at Camp Humphreys. Upon 71-20955's return home, the forward transmission was never replaced. In fact, it remained installed in the aircraft until 71-20955 was inducted into the Fiberglass Rotor Blade (FRB) modification. At that time, the forward transmission was replaced. The aircraft was well known to have mysterious noises coming from the forward transmission area periodically during flight. The source of the noises was never discovered and there was no other adverse affects. The noises did stop when the transmission was replaced some 3 years after the incident. For that reason the aircraft was named "Widow Maker". Sgt Ralph Wood explained to CHN, " One time when I was flying it on Christmas Eve on a mail haul mission to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), we had a complete intercom failure, no one could talk or hear. Then the transmission noises started. I was glad to return from that flight."

[Blue Sky]

Già Postato!

 

 

Nose art painted by Sgt Johnnie White

96th Bomb Group

Snetterton Heath, England

 

 

OLE PUSS II B-17F-85-BO 42-30073

96th Bomb Group 413rd Bomb Squadron

This was another Fort originally assigned to 384BG at Sioux City in April 1943. On 6th July however it was transferred to 96BG. "Ole Puss II" squats in front of a bomb and is wearing Staff Sergeant stripes whilst toting a heavy machine gun. There was, also, an earlier "Ole Puss" (42-5883) which displayed an almost identical nose art to "Puss II". Only close examination reveals distinguishing differences in the artwork although the earlier Vega built B17 has a distinctive window configuration. When 96BG took delivery of #073 (destined to become "Ole Puss II") on 6th July it relinquished the existing "Ole Puss" (#883) -- it was transferred back to 384BG.

On 17th April 1944, having completed 27 missions and with twelve fighters claimed by its crews, "Ole Puss II" came to a sad end. It bellied in near East Wretham whilst on a non-combat flight and was considered unrepairable. The original "Ole Puss" (#883) lasted only a few days with its new owners. It was lost on 25th July 1943 when six out of seven Forts were shot out of the low squadron over Hamburg. Although ditched into the North Sea, all the crew were rescued.

[Ospite intruder]

CH-47A 65-08024 in the Republic of Vietnam, circa 1968

[Blue Sky]

Già Postato!

 

 

Tail art painted by Sgt Sam P. Rodman

303rd Bomb Group

Molesworth, England

 

 

THE LITTLE WOMAN

aka Just for Laffs and Thumper Again

B-17F-50-BO 42-5393

303rd Bomb Group 360th Bomb Squadron

 

One of two known tail art paintings done by Sam Rodman, this Boeing-built Fort is reputed to have carried at least two other titles on the nose, possible at the same time. It was assigned to the group in late February 1943 having flown to England via Brazil and North Africa on the South Atlantic route.

It flew its first mission on 6th March 1943 to Lorient in France. Four different crews took the ship on its first four missions but then Lt Stallings was assigned on a regular basis and completed eight sorties to French and German port facilities. In late July 1943, the Bradbury crew took over and achieved ten missions in the aircraft. They sustained considerable punishment in the ship and recorded significant battle damage on at least five of their missions before finishing up on 3rd September. Carl Fyler's crew added another five missions, others added four more until William Heller had most of the left main wing flap shot away and was forced to landed at RAF Kenley on 14th October after the costly raid on Schweinfurt -- it blew a tyre on landing and skidded into a truck. Repairs put the Fortress out of action for some time and it may have undergone a name change at this time to become "Thumper Again". It returned to combat flying in late January 1944 and John Parrott took the ship for five more missions until flak again ripped up the right wing. It was repaired but shot up again two days later, and yet again on the following day 25th February. It seems that the combat weary veteran was thereafter withdrawn from operations -- in any case, newer B17Gs with longer range tanks were beginning to fill out the ranks.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Jack Gaffney

91st Bomb Group

Bassingbourn, England

 

 

DESTINY'S CHILD

B-17G-30-BO 42-31812 401st Bomb Squadron

Jack Gaffney's pride and joy was "Destiny's Child" for he was its crew chief and he lavished much care and attention on the plane. Destined to fly a total of 53 combat sorties over Occupied Europe this plane was taken by as many as 15 different crews between 22nd February and 20th July 1944. Every one of those 53 sorties was without a single abort due to mechanical faults. "I was very proud of that", said Jack. "Sure hated to lose it."

 

The plane was named by radio man Gene Letalien on Howard Weber's crew and the character painted on by Jack Gaffney was based upon the popular Little Uncle Rafe. The excellent care given to the plane by crew chief Gaffney brought him a Bronze Star for meritorius achievement due to its completing 44 missions on its original engines.

 

On 20th July 1944, while attacking the airfield at Mockau near Leipzig, "Destiny's Child" was caught by waves of Fw190s and Me109s, sixty strong, which sliced through the formation and left it burning in #4 engine with wings and elevators badly damaged. The crew of Charles Van Ausdell abandoned the aircraft but only five men survived.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by AMM2c Hal Olsen

CASU-44

Tinian, Marianas

 

 

LA CHERIE

PB4Y-2 BuNo 59489 VPB-121 and VPB-106

Any information on this aircraft's service and its crews would be greatly appreciated.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Cpl Henry Johnson

500th Bomb Group 882nd Bomb Squadron

Isley Field, Saipan

 

FEVER FROM THE SOUTH B29 42-63497

882nd Bomb Squadron

One of his most beautifully executed paintings was completed by Johnson on "Fever from the South". Languishing across two dice the flesh tones and modelling on the figure is simply superb. Once again, the image was repeated on the other side of the aircraft with the same degree of skill.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Cpl Henry Johnson

500th Bomb Group 882nd Bomb Squadron

Isley Field, Saipan

 

 

PACIFIC QUEEN B29 42-63429

882nd Bomb Squadron

Johnson painted a seated grass-skirted half nude on this Super Fortress which was claimed by the unidentified pilot as "Sunny's Honey". The artist's "Drowsy Swede" signature can be seen below the artwork.

The photo below is believed to be Corporal Johnson clearing away his reference sketches after completing the paint job on the right hand side of the B29.

[Ospite intruder]

F16 belga, 50° anniversario NATO

[Ospite intruder]

Luftwaffe, JBG 31 Boelcke

 

[Blue Sky]

Entrambi Postatissimi!

Nose art painted by Sgt Amos Nicholson

343rd Bomb Squadron, 98th Bomb Group

Kabrit, Libya, North Africa

 

 

BASHFUL B-24D Serial No. 41-11776

 

The Pyramidiers' 343rd Bomb Squadron made good use of many of the other characters from the "Snow White" film including Prince Charming, the Witch and, of course, the seven dwarfs. "Bashful" was another of Amos Nicholson's skilful paintings with the figure facing forward, as it did with all his nose arts. It is believed that Amos painted all his first versions of the Disney dwarfs using a traditional shadow script for the titling. "Happy" was an exception to this, it used a shadow sans serif style for the title and the second version of "Dopey" used an entirely different approach to the titling, with multi-coloured, jumbled letters. The right side of "Bashful" was painted by another 98BG artist Cecil Lippard as "Jersey Jackass". It was another of the B24s which were tragically lost on the daring low level mission to Ploesti on 1st August 1943. Six of John McGraw's crew were killed that day and the three survivors became prisoners or war. The B24D had begun combat flying a year earlier on 25th August 1942 when it was taken to bomb the Corinth Canal by Lt Muehlberg who would fly no less than 25 missions in the plane up to mid-April 1943. A further 15 missions were added by other crews until it was brought down in Romania on the Ploesti mission with the 389BG crew of John McGraw.

[Ospite intruder]

Altro CH47 in Nam.

 

Modificato 22 Dicembre 2008 da intruder

[Ospite intruder]

 

Altre due art da CH47 in Nam. Purtroppo non ho trovato altri dati.

[Ospite intruder]

Più che un nose è uno special scheme, ma visto che è italiano e che è Natale...

 

[Ospite intruder]

Altro italiano. Indovinate un po' cos'ha sul timone...

 

[Blue Sky]

Bello l'ultimo, invece i N°1617-1618-1619 sono tutti già postati!

 

Nose art painted by Cpl Nick Fingelly

447th Bomb Group

Rattlesden, England

 

 

LIL EIGHT BALL B-17G-35-DL 42-107215

709th Bomb Squadron

Assigned overseas on 24th April 1944, this B17G flew its first mission with 447BG on 7th May and it was a cruel baptism of fire, The target was Berlin -- "Big B". The crew that day was Lt J Noyd's and they returned to Berlin later that month and received serious flak damage for their efforts. This crew completed a total of nine missions in the plane.

Crew chief M/Sgt Mike Kaschak was responsible for naming this Fort. According to his son, Kaschak was walking to the mess hall one morning and a piece of newspaper blew up against his leg. Picking it up, he noted the Lil Eight Ball comic strip printed on it. His B17 had not yet been named so chosing that as its title he got Fingelly, another member of his team, to paint the nose art -- based on that popular comic strip character.

"Lil Eight Ball" went on to complete at least 124 missions including another 3 trips to Berlin, 3 to Merseburg, 4 to Bremen as well as Munich, Regensberg, Kassel, Mainz, Brunswick and Hamburg. In fact virtually every major target in northwest Europe. At least 38 different crews climbed aboard this Fort to go into combat -- Lt Bounds and his crew completed 28 of their missions in this plane between November 44 and April 45. The plane's record was a remarkable testimony to the skill of Kaschak and his ground crew who maintained the veteran Fort come what may. When the fighting stopped "Lil Eight Ball" was still in the game and it was eventually flown back to the USA, ultimately to be scrapped at South Plains, Texas, in 1946.

[Ospite intruder]

Proviamo quest'altro. Purtroppo, la foto è tutt'altro che nitida.

 

[Ospite intruder]

 

5.000 flying hours for Norwegian F-16 665, first to achieve in the EPAF countries

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Sgt Amos Nicholson 343rd Bomb Squadron, 98th Bomb Group Kabrit, Libya, North Africa

 

 

DAMFINO B-24D Serial No. ?????

The serial number for this B24 is still unidentified and so its history remains unrecorded but it shows the only departure from the cartoon imagery which Amos Nicholson used for his other nose art paintings. This twin-prop breasted flying nude was a popular image amongst the air and ground crews of the USAAF and it was used on many different aircraft in other theatres of operation. So popular was it that it must have originated from one of the many magazines of the period which incorporated pin up art but who conceived the original it is still unknown.It is reminiscent of Alberto Vargas' painting which appeared in Esquire magazine's fold-out centre spread but the addition of the whirling props is a later enhancement. If anyone can provide an insight into this I would like to hear from them -- and also see any other examples of the extraordinarily blessed young lady adorning other aircraft!!

[Blue Sky]

AMERICAN BEAUTY ---- B-24J-5-CO (F-7A)---- 42-73045