WW2 Aircraft Nose Art

Explicit Content Warning  Although nose art and painted squadron insignia saw its inception in World War I, nose art as we know it, did not occur until the Second World War. At the beginning of World War II, before the idea of painting an image on the skin of a plane arose, crews of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) pasted pages from Esquire Magazine, Men Only, and Look magazine on the nose section, fuselage, and tail sections of the B-17 bombers known as Flying Fortresses. By the end of the war, there was a huge demand for artists, who received up to $15.00 per aircraft! Nose art thrived in its infancy largely because servicemen had more freedom to alter their aircraft. Although the military never officially sanctioned nose art, it unofficially approved it as a morale-booster. Anne Josephine Hayward, a member of the American Red Cross Aero Club in England and a painter of nose art, described nose art as: "Its purpose was worthy, to bolster military morale in a terrible time. The members of each crew came to feel that their plane and their painting were somehow special and would bring them luck, a safe return from hostile skies. The art may have been frivolous at times, but it was never anti-social".

There were several main cultural sources of 1940s nose art. The first was the popular men's magazine Esquire, whose calendar page was the era's equivalent to the 1960s Playboy centerfold. The most duplicated nose art images were the product of Esquire's artist Alberto Vargas. Whether a Vargas copy or a Philip S. Brinkman original, pin-up art of the day was transferred to the side of an aircraft. Comic strip characters provided another source to be duplicated. Other popular topics included animals, nicknames, hometowns, and various patriotic imagery. The Soviet Air Force decorated their planes with imagery of history, mythical beasts and patriotic motifs. Here are a few and be sure to come back as we're adding more regularly.

Parental Notice: This gallery contains historical images of Aircraft Nose Art that some may find unsuitable for younger children.

Photographs - Pinups

Photographs - Cartoons

References & Resources

  • Bibliography

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    U.S. Army Center of Military History, Force Structure and Unit History Branch (29 May 2008). "25th Infantry Division". Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchron/cc/025id.htm. Retrieved 15 August 2008.