Military Aircraft Nose Art: An American Tradition

Vintage WWII Nose Art

On November 17, 2006, John Harris, Queensdown (UK) Site Supervisor, for Reclamet Limited sent an email with images of vintage WWII military nose art.

   
click any image to retrieve a larger version

We are most appreciative that Reclamet has given us permission to include these images in Military Aircraft Nose Art.

We also have a question from Mr. Hughes who asks for assistance identifying "the likely aircraft sections and/or a brief history to these particular images." Can you tell by looking at the panels what type of plane it was painted on?

Thanks go to Chris Brandt in Australia who emailed us in January 2008 that this section of Carolina Moon is from a B-17G Flying Fortress.

The designs are typical of WWII nose art. U.S. Army Air Corps is stenciled above the serial number on The Avenging Angel. A search in a serial number database for 41-20798 identified its plane as a Ryan PT-22, a single engine monoplane used for training during WWII. However, you can tell from the image that the The Avenging Angel was a bomber. See Joe Baugher's USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to Present for a review of serial numbers in theThe Display of Serial Numbers on Aircraft section.

If you can shed light on what type of planes these nose art were painted on, send an email.