Best B-29 Bomber Nose Art (And Why Was it Banned?)

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[petenielsen]

A member of my church was a member of a harmonica band and army air corps artist who painted nose art on planes during WW II. Owen passed away a 3 years ago at age 102.

[orangecrush]

Imagine telling these brave hero’s that take off on those planes with a good chance of death that they can’t have their pictures on their planes….! Sad!

[kirkwilson]

Wife's grandfather Charles piloted a B-24 "Calamity Jane". They painted a topless woman on before a mission. They returned thankfully. The CO told them to paint a sweater on the woman and they did. We have pics of the crew in front of the plane with and without sweater! Charles survived harrowing events and lived to 92!

[jimfinlaw]

Very nice video. Thanks for sharing. Many B-29 crews were upset about being ordered to removing the nose art on their planes. As for the B-29, my father was a B-29 pilot-in-command in 1945 and he called those original Wright R-3350 engines "wrong engines" and "flame throwers" because they had a nasty tendency to catch on fire during takeoff. The cylinder head temperatures on the early Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone engines were redlined at 289 degrees Celsius and on takeoff it was not uncommon for the cylinder temperatures to be reading well above 320 degrees Celsius. My father loved flying the B-29 Superfortress but the engines were horrible. He has logged some three engine time and occasionally two engine time in the B-29. As it turned out, my father and his B-29 crew missed the war in the Pacific by only two weeks. The war with Japan had ended. He continued flying WB-29's and later WB-50's for the Army's and later USAF's Air Weather Service until 1956. He then transitioned to flying Boeing B-52B Stratofortress heavy bombers as a co-pilot for Strategic Air Command when he was stationed at Castle AFB in California. He retired from the service in 1957.

[lazysob]

My uncle was on BATTLIN BETTY III. The crew was shot down over the Sea of Japan in ‘45 in another aircraft while the Betty was being serviced. I have the nose art embroidered on all my ball caps. Ernie Pyle spent some time with the crew and even mentioned them in his book. A GIs Story. Fauad “Smitty”Smith .

[paharding]

Thank you. My father was a Central Fire Control Gunnery Coordinator on B29s. He spent most of his career as an instructor. It was a great aircraft with chronic engine problems. More B29 crews were killed in the US in training than perished overseas. The ground crews called the B29s flying coffins. My dad flew on one training mission that had engine trouble and barely made it back to base after they threw out everything possible from the aircraft to lighten its load. 20:07

[xX_LaAndou_Xx]

"The B-29 superfortress, the bomber that pounded Japan into submission" 💀💀💀

[LukeKnight-ux]

This video must have cost a lot of silver lions to make.

[Ibuki]

Had a grand-uncle in B-24s in the South West Pacific; from what he said; the nose art issue was Elenore Roosevelt visiting Bomber bases, and getting all scandalized, then going and crying to FDR.

[jvleasure]

And the fact that the Japanese buried them with such honors is really, really wild. Wow.

[matfhju]

I think nose art shuld see a return. Hell putt simular graphiks on shipps and ground vehicles too

[raymondyee]

Omg this reminds me of the B-29 nose art I saw in books; it really brings out the creativity from some USAAF crews.

[paulmazan]

My favorite Nose Art is Waddy's Wagon. A B-29 with nose art depicting the crew in the positions they occupied in the aircraft riding in a wagon. There is a picture in the book"Vintage Aircraft Nose Art" by Gary Valant on page 180. This picture shows the crew in a wagon in front of the nose art. The aircraft was B-29 42-24598. The aircraft and crew were lost returning from a raid on Tokyo on Jan 9, 1945. The photo personalized the loss to me. Here was a crew of young men bonded by fate and as a crew. Perhaps it will affect you in the same way and you can use your resources to fill in more of the story.

[johngaither]

I asked my dad about the nose art on his B-29. He said he couldn't remember it which meant it was risqué in some way or another. Dad was a notorious prude so his feigned ignorance was a give away about the truth. Dad took a big dislike to the Army Air Corps and the US government because of the poor preparation of the B-29 for combat. He wasn't the least bit shy about saying the airplane came much closer to killing him than the Japanese ever did. Only the skill and experience of the AC saved the plane and crew on two occasions.

[tramlink]

my all time favourite noseart was from my great uncles time in Iwo Jima 1945 on a P51D. it simply had in large letters written on the side of the cowling: ''Is This Trip Necessary?'

[Sacto]

If I remember correctly, a number of B-29's were lost due to an unusual electrical fault that could cause the plane to literally explode. I believe that problem with fixed with the post-war B-50 model.

[BJPalmerDC]

Col. Robert A Ping was an absolute stud and an artillery master. He was allergic to BS and got the job done with whatever he had.

[ianbray]

TJ. Your videos are incredible mate. The nose art must never be forgotten. It does great honour to the memory of those brave flight crews and the ground staff as well. Thank you

[Lets_Go_Brandon]

I remember finding a bunch of those old signal/squadron publication books on WW2 airplanes, got in a bit of trouble at elementary school in the 80s with them because of the nose art 😂😂

[icaleinns]

You need to look into the slang of the time. Poison Ivy was a slang term back in the day for an STD. Gawd those guys had cajunes! They came up with some of the best slang/acronyms that are still in use today: FUBAR, PITA, BOHICA, etc. You could get an entire episode out of that, even. May take some creative editing, but hey, that's what you do! 😂