Nose art painted on WWII Military Airplanes

50 Color Vintage Photos of Nose Art Painted on WWII Military Airplanes.

The inscription of art work on military planes dates to World War I, when paintings were usually extravagant company or unit insignia. However, regulations were put in place after the war to stymie the practice.

As the United States entered World War II, nose art regulations were relaxed, or in many cases totally ignored. WWII would become the golden age of aircraft artistry.

Artwork was typically painted on the nose of the plane, and the term "nose art" was coined.
Nose art was a morale booster, and those in daily combat needed that boost. Facing the prospect of death on every flight, the crew deserved all of the encouragement, and smiles, available to them.

The art on the plane unified the crew, and identified it, and made it unique from all of the aircraft in their unit or on their base.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[LordOfNothingham]

Somewhere in a rift of time these men are still young and flying these planes.

[dankovac]

The Waddy's wagon bunch looks like they had fun. Bless them.

[Beari]

Imagine just stumbling on part of a shot down plane years later, and seeing the old art just sitting there

[samsignorelli]

Makes you wonder how many of these birds survived the war.

[tomr]

Great video. I went to an estate sale years ago and the elderly gent that died collected nose art, not photographs, but the actual art. He had warehouse size rooms with full panels of sheet metal, tail sections etc. And also, an extensive memorabilia collection, it was like a museum. His family said he traveled the world in his searches, but a lot came from Europe. I left with a lot of pictures that I took, and wishing I had the room.

[GunsNGames]

2:18 that's the Brazilian Air Force painting that served in Italy! Senta a Pua! Means something like: Bring it On!

[FreeBird-wsye]

When you just graduated from art school but you join the army to help your nation.

[contactico]

Ultimate respect to all these men who flew these amazing machines. Thank you for giving up your tomorrow for our today. My heart goes out to these vets.♥️

[victorjeffers]

Thanks to all who served in WW ll an to all who have served an now serving ! God Bless them all !

[teroblepuns]

Imagine going to war, facing these people in a battle and realising that they are all creative individuals with ambitions, dreams and motivations in their lives. I hate war so much.

[eamondunne]

Great Planes...Great Nose Art and God Bless the Men that Flew them..they gave us the Semblance of the World that We have lived in Since..God Bless Em all👍

[welshpete]

Brave brave men, notice how many missions are painted on the noses of those aircraft . To go out day after day, knowing your chances of coming back were getting slimmer and slimmer !

[crystalheart]

I was always so impressed with the artwork on these planes.

[Grandizer]

The plane at 04:02 was lost in January’45 killing everyone in the picture. They were returning from a raid near Tokyo when another B29 fell out of formation after being rammed by a fighter. The Cpt, seen here at the front, who was an All American football player at Oklahoma, played in the NFLs first televised game, and logged over 9, 000 hours in a B24 over Europe, tried to escort the stricken bomber for protection and to relay its location in case it went down. Nobody knows the cause of the plane crash, and a two week search came up with nothing.

[jimrichards]

Those magnificent young men and their flying machines. God’s speed and thanks for a job well, well done.

[kennethhlavik]

The art on the planes, was always so beautiful and cool.

[lawrencelewis]

I was at a "One of A Kind" show in Toronto a few years ago- It's all handmade furniture, clothing and what not. One guy took bits of metal, put rivets into them and painted them olive drab and did a pretty fair job of painting nose art on them. I would have bought one, but couldn't afford it. He sure did nice work and maybe next time...

[theorganizer]

What YouTube decided to recommend to me and yet I love seeing nose arts on planes that symbolizes something...

[ihavenoname]

Ahh these old girls. They had life. They had personality. They had stories to tell and were veterans as much as their crews. They were more than just planes.

[volatilesky]

It almost looks like the "Texas Honey" got redacted - either the artist was told to stop after it was pretty clear where he was going with it, or only the outline was left after the "shading" was taken away lol