Aircraft Nose Art—WWII

I recently heard about the the www.SaveTheGirls.org website. Little did I know that "the Girls" they are trying to save aren't so young anymore. These fine ladies were painted on the nose panels of WWII aircraft.

To help personalize the huge B-17 flying fortress bombers, airmen started pasting racy pictures from Esquire Magazine on the nose panels. Before long, the pasting evolved into painting, with scantily clad women often being the subjects. One would not expect to see such images on today's military equipment in Iraq, but not because the soldiers wouldn't want them.

The airmen in World War II, often under the age of 20, were flying terrifying missions. Many would not return. The painted ladies gave the bomber crews something to smile about, and helped the plane feel a little more like home. Naturally, the farther away the plane was stationed from the mainland, the more suggestive the paintings became. Planes stationed in the South Pacific had some of the most suggestive nose art. Toward the end of the war, crews were known to give the girls "clothes" with water-based paint or even mud when the brass was on base.

Bombers were nicknamed after their nose art, from the Hoosier Hot Shot and Lil' Patches to Strawberry Bitch, Miss Behavin, Photo Fanny, Panama Hattie, Reveille with Beverly, Heavenly Body and Frisco Frisky.

The nose art helped unite the crew behind its mascot and it gave the plane its all-important good-luck charm. It can't be said how important this was when young men were being asked to fly through a living hell in the heavens above.

Here are some sites that feature bomber nose art:

www.SaveTheGirls.org

www.skylighters.org/pinupqueens/

northstargallery.com/Aircraft/sensualilty.htm

parentseyes.arizona.edu/militarynoseart/overview3.htm