While explaining the difference between a piece of fine art and science, Niel Degrasse Tyson, a great expositor of black holes and astronomy, said that if Einstein hadn’t come up with the idea of General Relativity(that would define Black Holes, and act as a great impediment for their study too, for General Relativity has no idea what to make of the singularity present at the center of this great guzzler of galaxies), scientists would eventually have stepped into this great theory anyhow. However, reasoned Tyson, if Van Gogh hadn’t made the “Starry Night” or had Rafael not made “The School of Athens”, no one probably would have.
When the celebrated club from Paris- Paris Saint-Germain – won the Champions League last year, its airline partner, Qatar Airways, rolled out the club’s Boeing 777 in the hues of the Champions League. Air New Zealand has chosen to paint some of its aircraft in the Lord of the Rings theme.
But there is a special sort of painting that used to exist in the aircraft of the years gone by. What we call the “nose” of the aircraft (as we think of the expression “nosedive” of a plane), used to contain paintings, which aren’t in par with Van Gogh but did share some corpuscles of the elementargedanken: pin-up girls, mockery of the enemies, cartoons, and fiery animals.
When did nose art begin? And why?
Daily Art Magazine defines Nose Art as “a type of art that gives each plane a personality, thus setting it apart from all the other crafts that came down the same assembly line.” This definition is far too vague, and might allow readers to draw a conclusion that every Airbus A380 needs to have its own nose art, lest the individual double-decker and largest passenger plane ever lose its “personality”.
One of the modern airlines that uses Nose Art is Virgin Atlantic. Here’s a sample of its Airbus A340-600.
Photo: Simon_sees | Wikimedia Commons
Virgin Altantic’s fleet comprises 29 historical Airbus A340s. Although the carrier operates a total of 80 aircraft (including Airbus A330, 787 Dreamliner, among others), its Airbus A350 has the same nose art as its historical A340. The same is true of its Airbus A330. Under such scrutiny, one would find that Virgin’s Dreamliner has a different nose art than others. Here’s a sample:
Photo: Trevor Hannant | Wikimedia Commons
One thing we have to note is that Nose Art isn’t a regular part of modern airliners. One might think of the example of Airbus Beluga, the supertranporters that was build to carry Airbus’ aircraft parts from one facility to another, but its resemblance to a mammal isn’t simply down to the eyes or what appear to be its lips.
Photo: MarcelX42 | Wikimedia Commons
Nose Art is an anachronistic form of aircraft painting that almost doesn’t find its way in modern aircraft. We also have to note that nose art was typical of military aircraft. While one might find the afore-quoted definition of nose art (from Daily Art Magazine) to be missing the point, it would be difficult to quarrel with the following observations the magazine made:
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- Nose art was rife with political meaning, a propaganda purpose, or mocked the enemy.
- “By the beginning of 1941, it took the name Nose Art for the simple reason that it was the only position on the aircraft where they could paint without interfering with markings, identification, or serial number.”
Whether or not the magazine’s claim that “the plane was a kind of woman who temporarily replaced their wife at home, and so they treated the plane as their “lady” is true is something that not a lot of pilots of those times would be able to attest anyhow.
The Beginning of the nose art
Jack Prelutsky, in his famous poem “Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face” asks us to be grateful for the fact that our noses are where they are, for they were otherwise, horrors would follow.
Early aircraft were generally left unpainted, as little research had been conducted into aircraft finishes and markings. However, the absence of distinctive colors and markings created a major challenge for military aviation, since pilots needed a way to identify friendly and enemy aircraft during combat.
Italy became the first country to use aircraft in warfare when it deployed airplanes to Tripoli in 1912. By 1913, several Italian squadrons had begun using unit and identification markings. One Italian Navy Nieuport-Macchi, for example, carried a sea-monster design featuring a face, teeth and large ears, with the aircraft’s number displayed prominently behind the artwork.
Italian aircraft also received markings to record combat damage. White stripes measuring approximately 1 by 5 inches were painted onto the aircraft for each bullet hole sustained during combat, creating an early form of visual record of battle damage.
This move was to change aircraft painting forever, and introduce the possibility of nose art, write Jeffery Ethell and Clarence Simonsen in their history of nose art (the quote above is from the same book, too):
“With the introduction of the synchronized machine gun and true fighter aircraft, things changed rapidly. Since deadly German Fokker E-Iype monoplanes were similar in appearance 10 French Morane Type N machines, by early 1916 French and British sq uadrons started painting the cowlings, cabane struts, undercarriage, legs, and wheel covers a bright red as an ID marking. Later in the year, all sides were introducing camounage paint and unit markings.”
Stylized identification, which was a glorious part of nose art, was first depicted in either sides of French motor transport units. These included:
- Cartoon characters
- Animals
- Nurses,
- Indian heads
Taking a page out of their books, aircraft squadrons would also apply similar motifs on the aircraft they operated, and voila, nose art breathed into existence.
A few common themes behind the nose art: Pin Up Girls, Animals, and More
We have no idea about the amount of outrage that would have been expressed if a nose art like the following would be a part of airlines operating today. 
Photo: Surfsupusa | Wikimedia Commons
George Kalre, a veteran of World War II, reviewed over a thousand examples of nose art in the great war he participateed in and found that about 55 percent were female figures- a fourth of these female figures were nude, and most of the rest were partially clothed. Another review of 769 samples of nose art showed that 57 percent involved female figures and more than 11 percent male figures. Strikingly, the latter of the reviews also revealed that 7% were neutral i.e., neither male nor female nor animal. What goes without saying is that the nude female figurines in the form of pin-up girls made up a heavy chunk of nose art.
Pin-Up Girls
Pin Up girls was attested to the official English vernacular in the 1940s. It made it as a social phenomenon in 1943 after G.I.’s [G.I is an informal term referring to “a soldier in the United States armed forces, especially in the U.S. Army“] requested magazines such as Life to send them “illustrated” or “Hollywood” pin-up girls alongside, pin-ups of “everyday women”. Into the final two years of WWII, pin-up girls were “increasingly represented by the girlfriends, wives, and even children of homesick soldiers needing a boost in morale”.
The term “pin-up girl” became widely associated with photographs of attractive women that servicemen displayed in military settings during World War II. A 1943 New York Times article described the expression as a product of its time, noting that such images could be found decorating tents, barracks, bunks, tanks and aircraft.
The newspaper also observed that “pin-up” had begun evolving beyond its original meaning, becoming a slang expression for something considered a favorite, excellent or highly desirable. It suggested that the popular term might eventually fade from everyday language, but at the time represented a distinctive addition to the English vocabulary.
There’s even a study on the “representations of body and face in the pin-up girl imagery of nose art, as desired by World War II soldiers”. The research analyzes faces and body shapes of thirteen famous pin-up Hollywood stars such as Betty Grable, Bettie Page, Dorothy Lamour, Rita Hayworth, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, among others. According to the author, “the common traits of nose art pin-up girls were designed to project an idealized version of feminine beauty, emphasizing physical allure—particularly in terms of body lines and facial features—while maintaining a playful and suggestive demeanor”.
The largest nose art featured an animal
The Consolidated Aircraft B-24 Heavy Bomber, also known as the B-24 Liberator featured a prominent artwork known as “The Dragon and his Tail”.
This nose art that also features a pin-up girl runs along the length of the fuselage and has been quotes as “the largest known artwork featured on a WWII-era aircraft”.
Photo: Tequask | Wikimedia Commons
After the war, this battle-fatigued aircraft was sent to the USA for scrapping. The USAAF Nose Art Research Project says that the aircraft “languished in the desert sand, devoid of its engines and thus tail-heavy with its nose in the air”.
In 1946, the aircraft could reportedly have been purchased for around $2,000, which would have preserved both the B-24 and its artwork. However, no buyers came forward, and the aircraft’s fortunes did not improve until decades later.
In 1989, The Collins Foundation acquired the aircraft and began a multimillion-dollar restoration of what was then the world’s only flyable B-24J. As part of the restoration, the aircraft was given the famous “The Dragon and His Tail” artwork, honoring Sgt. Bartigian and the Pacific-based USAAF crews. Its first restored paint scheme had instead represented the 15th Air Force’s “All American.”
Although the aircraft was later repainted in another scheme, it eventually returned to the skies as “The Dragon and His Tail,” appearing at air shows across the United States and attracting tens of thousands of spectators and aviation enthusiasts. Insects, birds, and four-legged animals made up about 15 percent of the nose art in World War.
What animals did nations depict in their nose art?
It has been said that the nose art in aircraft operated by US troops in areas such as the Pacific were a tad too racy, or too extreme, for these were shielded from the civil population [A survey cited by nationalww2museum.org revealed that 43 percent of nose art in the European depicted women, while this figure was 66 percent in the Pacific].
Aircraft in Europe, however, had to tone down the risque-ness of nose art, for these were always amidst the public eye. Italy’s top fighter ace of World War I, Francesco Baracca, wore an emblem of a black horse. Enzo Ferrari, a racecar driver who would eventually introduce “Ferrari” to the world, used Baracca’s insignia on his racing cars.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
During World War I. aircraft operated by German fighters painting the aircraft in an all-red hue. One of the most famous operators of such German fighter planes was Baron Manfred von Richthofen, who is also known as the “Red Baron”. In the next great war, German fighter pilots (aka Abbeville Boys), deluged the noses of their German fighters in bright yellow. German fighter pilots also painted their aircraft in rainbow colors, almost daring the Allied pilots to have a go at them. The following is a replica of Richthofen’s red-colored triplane.
Photo: User:Entity999, Foto von Oliver Thiele | Wikimedia Commons
Photo: National Air and Space Museum Archives | Wikimedia Commons
American Flying Tigers became famous for their nose art depicting a shark’s mouth. These tigers embarked on their raids on the American Curtiss P-40 aircraft, which were painted with shark’s teeth. The following image gives us an idea of how these Tigers lined up in the battlefields.
Photo: World War II in View | Wikimedia Commons
However, it was the Germans who had come up with the idea of the shark mouth design. An article titled “The Origins of Shark Mouth Nose Art” written by Nic Johnson for Aircorps Art helps trace the origins of the art depicted in the picture above.
“In the Sept. 2019 issue of WARBIRDS (Vol 42/No.6), Doug Revell gave a very concise and thorough answer to the trivia question: “Identify the Origin of the famous Shark mouth nose art used by the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-42”. He began by writing, “The first noted mouth was on a World War I German Roland C.II.” (Revell) With a little research, we were able to find a number of photographs with the reconnaissance aircraft commonly referred to as the Walfisch (or Whale)….”
Almost a third of World War nose art involved varied subjects like cartoon characters
Other subjects such as babies, children, astrological signs, devils, gremlins, etc., also made their way into the aircraft nose art. And so did cartoon characters.
Nose art featuring Mickey Mouse did not appear only in aircraft serving World War II but also in the Spanish Civil War. Another popular charcater was Sad Sack, a soldier who served in the lower ranks of the army.
Photo: Imperial War Museum | Wikimedia Commons
Another prominent Nose Art of World War is titled “Medicine Hat”. This features Goofy on the fuselage of the aircraft. One of the more noticeable traits of nose arts is that almost a third of these were done by people with a natural proclivity towards it, although Walt Disney voluntarily had stationed five artists who dedicated all their time to nose art. Medicine Hat was carved up by a ground crew who chose to depict Goofy dropping bombs.
Nose Art beyond World War
The evolution of aviation during World War meant that by the time the two wars wrapped up, fighter aircraft had become much sleeker.
This meant that jet-powered fighter jets didn’t have as much surface for elaborate paintings. Nonetheless, Lockheed AC-130 gunships of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Squadrons often had nose art that were given names such as:
- Azrael – Angel of Death
- Ghost Rider
- Thor
- War Lord
- The Arbitrator
Photo: PH1c A. Phillipi, U.S. Navy | Wikimedia Commons
In recent times, the penchant for nose art has almost dwindled. Gary Velasco, an author and pioneer in reproducing WWII aviation nose art, was quoted in Simple Flying about why nose art isn’t a part of modern aviation:
“Nose art saw a decline when Political Correctness took its toll and today, art is still being done, however, mostly as a decal or chalk and crayon so it can be easily removed. This is highly regulated and all designs must be approved through the proper channels and top brass. The female pinup form is now prohibited but privately-owned warbirds are not regulated and are at the discretion of its owner.”
Circling back to Niel’s point about the improbability of the existence of a painting like the Starry might, where would nose art be without the movement that led to pin-up girls? Where would it be without two of the bloodiest wars in Europe?
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