Our host, a former naval aviator, shares stories and insights from her experience in the world of aviation. Uncover fascinating tales about nose art in World War I and II, learn how particular symbols and figures on aircraft came to be, and delve deeper into the history of aviation observing diverse aircraft models, from T-34s to Blackhawks.
Whether you’re a history enthusiast or passionate about aviation, this comprehensive video tour of an air show at NAS Oceana, Virginia will surely engage you.
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Intro: 0:00
How nose art started: 0:58
Variations in Nose Art – Tail Art: 3:44
Helicopters: 5:08
Jenn’s Helo: 6:14
Aerobatics military training: 7:35
Nose art in modern aviation: 8:21
Transcript
The History of Nose Art
[00:00:00] Jenn: Today on Walk with History, all about aviation, NOZART. Here from the air show at NAS, Oceana, Virginia.
[00:00:22] I guess
[00:00:26] I haven’t told people enough, which is funny because the running joke is, how do you know if a pilot is in the room? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. I’m a formal naval aviator. I callsign was Yoko, I broke up the band, I got my wings three days after 9 11, so About 20. two years ago. And uh, so I know a lot about aviation, flew in jets, flew in helicopters, and I did two deployments, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom.
[00:00:55] But here we are at the air show. I’m gonna do a story all about nose art today. The nose art here on this T 34. So actually, I actually flew this aircraft in flight school. This is I have a lot of hours in this aircraft. This is a tandem. style aircraft where you both, uh, the student is in front, the instructor is in back.
[00:01:13] But see how it has the jaws on the front. Noah’s Ark pretty much started in World War I. And it started in World War I when the Germans started to paint their aircraft with their squadron symbols on it. And The Americans start to take notice, and you think of the Bloody Red Baron, painting his aircraft all red.
[00:01:32] These aviators, who were just proud of their flying, started to paint their aircraft in a certain way. And then in World War II, it actually took on new meaning. Now, most of the time when Jaws are painted on an aircraft like this, And I’ve talked about this before. It means the aircraft just ate the ground, which means it’s done a nose landing or the nose, uh, gear has collapsed and the aircraft has eaten the ground.
[00:01:55] Uh, and so then they painted with the jaws. Now, you could also have like the Flying Tigers and things like that. They have painted their aircraft with jaws and, but in T 34 land, when I lived in T 34 land, it was, The aircraft ate the ground, so this aircraft had done a nose down landing, ate the ground and they painted jaws on it.
[00:02:14] So if you were in flight school and you flew an aircraft with jaws on it, that’s what that meant. And we’ll talk more about aircraft, history of nose art and aviation. All things that I love to talk about. There’s nose art behind me here. Instrument of destruction and bomb squadron. So Nozart started out as decorating for your squadron.
[00:02:44] That’s what it is, World War I. Really was putting your squadron symbol on. World War II is when it’s going to take on this new meaning of representation, of pilots, connection, wives, girlfriends, women, things like that. Only 50 percent of Nozart was actually human. Women, men, other 50 percent it was like, Tigers or dice people, but it’s the it’s the nose art of the World War Two of the 1940s of the women that really does get a lot of notoriety when you think of the Memphis Bell and things along that nature.
[00:03:18] A lot of that nose art was taken from magazines at the time. So there were magazines for the guys fighting wars. We were able to pick two women so the men could see, you know what they were fighting for and missing the girls back home. And they took those silhouettes and painted them on the side of aircraft.
[00:03:37] Here we see the 69 bomb squadron. They have their squadron symbol here, and then they have instrument of destruction. This
[00:03:53] is tail art. So when people think of nose art, it’s not just depicted on the nose. It can be depicted on the tail. And that is actually from World War I as well. And it’s historically accurate even today. Some art is done on the tail. You’ll see that with F 14s and things of that nature. We don’t really have the nose space, but you got a lot of tail space.
[00:04:12] This was also good for identifying different aircraft during World War II as friendlies. So you could tell, again, and you always are going to have, like, different emblems for different countries. But this is evicting different bombers, fighters, escorts. We’ll have a tail art, but you’re going to have nose art and tail art.
[00:04:29] Depending on how much surface area you have, where the most surface area is, is usually what gets depicted. Here you have a Grim Reaper. Uh, looking down onto a globe. So again, like I said, not everything is always a women scantily clad, although we think about that. There’s other things that are depicted for, uh, art on aircraft.
[00:05:09] So this is what we consider a frog helicopter. You have two top rotors on top again, talking about nose art and then talking about why this has a model number 47. And the serial number. Sometimes you see people’s names painted on the side of aircraft and people will, you know, you think about Top Gun and how he has his name on the side of the aircraft, is that his aircraft?
[00:05:30] It doesn’t work that way. You don’t fly in the same aircraft every day. You don’t get one aircraft and that’s your aircraft. It doesn’t work that way. What happens is you’re going to fly in all of the aircrafts in the squadron. Most of the time, if an aircraft gets painted with a name on it, that aircraft has deployed with that group.
[00:05:46] You put your OIC’s name on the side. But if you’re just a pilot in the squadron, you’re not going to have your name on the side of an aircraft unless you’ve deployed with that aircraft. So, and it’s not the aircraft you fly all the time.
[00:06:11] Happy
[00:06:20] it’s here. This is a, a Blackhawk. Now in the Navy, we call it a Seahawk. So anytime I explain to people what I flew, I always say, take the Blackhawk. painted silver. Call it a Seahawk and that’s what the Navy has. This is an army Blackhawk. As you can tell, it’s more open. Ours was never that open because we carried a lot of avionics, but this is really open to have a lot of crew inside.
[00:06:44] The aircraft I flew the tail wheel is moved in underneath. That’s how you can always tell a Bravo or now the Romeos. They’re going to land on small ships, so they can’t have their tail wheel all the way out like this. Their tail wheel has to be closer in, because you’re going to fold the tail. And you fold the tail, you’re not going to have the tail wheel on the end, so they move the tail wheel underneath the aircraft.
[00:07:05] This is, you can see these kind of holes with these lines over here. It’s how you climbed on top of the helicopter. So you put your foot here and then you climb. It’s always nice. You can see the line to to know where your foot goes when you’re climbing on and off. This is the cockpit looks like. So you’re gonna have two pilots in here.
[00:07:20] You have a hack, a helicopter aircraft commander and then a H2P helicopter second pilot. But you both can fly the aircraft at any time. Only the left seat can fire the missiles. But this is what it looks like. Many hours sitting inside this cockpit, just like this.
[00:07:44] See, you see the person doing all the, uh, aero, aerobatics. And in flight school, you’re gonna learn how to do all those aerobatics. I know you’re like, really? I’m like, yeah, you do. You learn how to do aileron rolls. So you’ll do, you’ll go up to the top like that. You basically stall out. And then you’ll spin, you do a couple of rotations, and then you learn how to recover from a spin.
[00:08:10] And you scoop it out. Everybody learns that. You have to learn how to do that because you have to learn A, basic aerodynamics, and then you’ve got to learn how to recover an aircraft if it actually does do that.
[00:08:46] Usually in a squadron, not every aircraft is going to be a painted aircraft. You’re going to have one or two painted. This is on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. This one is much more painted, not all of them are going to have the same type of painting. Some are just going to be regular jets, these ones.
[00:09:15] And uh, if you haven’t liked and subscribed to Walk With History on YouTube, please do. It really helps us out. We also have a podcast called Talk With History. We go more in depth to these episodes, and we would really love to have you as part of our community. So please, like and subscribe. And then let me know what you think about this video, because I would love to hear your feedback.
[00:09:34] So they found with the nose art of World War II, that’s when you’re going to get the most scantily clad women depicted in World War II. And they found as Spartans are farther away from mainland, the less clothing those women depicted on aircraft would be wearing. So the farther away you are from maybe, uh, you know, people in charge and personnel and regulations, the less clothing those people, those women will be wearing.
[00:10:01] So it’s really funny. Because there are a lot of nose art where women are bare breasted or not wearing anything. Uh, Memphis Belle, I would say, is very tasteful. She’s kind of turned to the back and you see the back of her leg. So today, does nose tart still exist? Yes, it does, to an extent. A lot of times it is the squadron.
[00:10:20] This is VF 103, the squadron I flew with. the F 14 squadron that I flew with. Now it’s the F 18 squadron, but it’s still depicted today. You still got funny things today. You still, it’s still built up for morale today, but you will not see scantily clad women. And I even read about how some female pilots actually had like a man painted on the nose, like a really buff.
[00:10:44] In shape man. So, you know, it’s coming full circle. So, if you like this video, please watch some other videos that we have about aviation. And, uh, don’t forget to like and subscribe to Walk With History. But on to my next Walk With History.
[00:11:13] Music