Nose Art

[3175375]

 

[Snotty]

There was one of these T-33s sitting at Sacramento's Executive Airport for YEARS! Who knows, it might still be there!

 

[67newport]

 

[Snotty]

Is that Harrison Ford in the B-24? I knew he was old, and a pilot, but sheesh, that long ago?

 

[3175375]

Aircraft technicians from the US Air Force 305th Aviation Support Group (305th Service Group) repair the engines of a C-46 transport aircraft with its own name "The Mountain Goat" in India at Andal Air Force Base.

 

[3175375]

US airmen hang a bomb on the world's first TDR-1 strike unmanned aerial vehicle on the island of Mbanika.

 

[3175375]

Bomber B-17G-25-DL "Sweet Pea" (serial number 42-38078) of the 429th squadron of the 2nd bomber group of the 15th air army of the US Air Force received a direct hit by an anti-aircraft shell during a raid on the Hungarian city of Debrecen 09/21/1944 . Despite critical damage, the pilot Guy Miller (Guy M. Miller) was able to land in Amendola in Italy. Radio operator Anthony Ferrara and gunner James F. Maguire were wounded, gunner Elmer H. Buss died immediately, and rear gunner James E. Totty died of his wounds during the return to the base. Surprisingly, the aircraft was repaired and put back into service.

 

[3175375]

Lifted from Facebook:

"Unforgotten"

I just returned home from the store with the stuff to make burgers for lunch and brisket for later in the evening. We get settled into the couch and turn on the Oklahoma vs Cincinnati game only to hear a noise that sounds oddly familiar, yet extremely unlikely on a Saturday. Low and behold, B-52H Stratofortress 60-0004 "Unforgotten" was airborne and headed West on a test flight.

Sigh. I guess I will get my shoes on and the camera ready. I don't have that one.

I sat on the couch, watching the ADS-B returns waiting for the turn back towards Oklahoma, distracted from watching the game and the game distracting me from watching the returns. As the game was getting interesting, I see her pop back up in the Texas Panhandle and get off the couch to go to work.

As I near the base the radio finally comes alive from its Saturday slumber,

"Approach, Sabre52, eleven thousand for Runway 18 , full stop"

"Four thousand, Sabre52" is all I hear, with my distance too far from the regional air traffic controllers at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

Visible by her nose gear light and long trail of smoke from her eight TF33s, I can finally see her making her approach.

"Tower, Sabre52, ten miles, full stop"

She flew past with a brilliant blue morning sky, painted with wispy white clouds, giving the sky such a soft blue color as she passed by, with that "Unforgotten" nose art jumping out at me.

Here is B-52H 60-0004 "Unforgotten" on her only approach to Tinker AFB on 23 September 2023 after a post depot maintenance functional check flight. The art is the NYC skyline with yellow beams where the towers once stood, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, and the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall, on a background of the American flag. Beautiful! Gone, but Unforgotten.

 

[67newport]

Here's a true story of the most incredible POW story you'll probably have not heard of. I learned of it by looking up the "Lonesome Lady" nose art, which was painted by Louis Barut of Toledo, one of the bomber's ground crew​

On the morning of July 28, 1945 several small groups of B-24 Liberators took off to fly their mission. The target was the Japanese Battleship Haruna, one of the few battleships remaining in the once mighty Japanese Navy.

The Lonesome Lady took a hit and the pilot, T.C. Cartwright thought that he could make it back to the ocean but he soon realized that the damage was to allow for that strategy. The plane became so uncontrollable that it deviated from its heading toward the sea back toward the land on its own.

With an engine in flames and the hydraulics lost, the plane was completely out of control. Cartwright ordered the crew to bail out and, to the best of his knowledge, Cartwright was the last to leave the doomed bomber.

All of the crew came to earth safely but in a very wide area. Each one was alone and each one was eventually captured and taken to a military installation for detention and found themselves housed in a military detention center on a military base in Hiroshima, Japan.

While the base was one of many in Hiroshima, none were intended to be military detention centers and so they had no experienced interrogators. Cartwright said that he answered all of the questions put before him, nevertheless, the Japanese thought he was lying so they sent him to the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo for further questioning.

On the morning of August 6, 1945 the US B-29 Bomber called the Enola Gay dropped, “Little Boy”, the first atomic bomb used in warfare on Hiroshima, Japan. About a half mile from the target were survivors of three flight crews that had been shot down.

Amazingly, the solid brick walls somewhat withstood the force of the initial blast, but only 3 of the prisoners are known to have survived the initial blast. Pilot Normand Brissette and Lonesome Lady gunner Ralph Neal managed to get to a cesspool, where they remained nose deep in the muck until the flames died down. When they emerged from their ghastly position, they were quickly recaptured by the fanatic Japanese guards. The city was totally destroyed by a nuclear weapons and they were still keeping an eye on a couple of US flyers who had hidden in a cesspool.

Lonesome Lady pilot Tom Cartwright survived the war. Cartwright said that 50 POW’s were beheaded after the Japanese surrender but he was spared. On August 28, a month after he was shot down, the POW camp where Cartwright was being housed was liberated by US Marines. Of the 3000 Japanese Americans who were stranded in Hiroshima at the beginning of the war, about 1000 survived the atomic bomb and returned to the United States.

A Date with the Lonesome Lady: A Hiroshima POW Returns, Pilot T. C. Cartwright provides a poignant firsthand account of his experience being shot down by aircraft artillery on that mission and subsequent events that he experienced in Hiroshima, Tokyo, and liberation from Omori Prisoner of War camp near Yokohama.

B-24 Liberator Nose Art – Symon Sez
LONESOME LADY — American POWs in WWII Hiroshima

Lonesome Lady was one of at least 28 B-24's that were assigned to the 866th Bomb Squadron of the 494th Bombardment Group of the 7th US Army Air Force. Likely beginning service on 29 May, 1944 in Mountain Home, Idaho, she was brought into the Pacific Theater of Operations by the crew of Pilot 2nd Lt. Emil Matthew Turek. The Lonesome Lady completed 46 combat missions beginning 22 November, 1944, and ending 28 July, 1945.

The nose art of the Lonesome Lady was inspired by Gil Elvgren, who was one of the most widely known "pin-up girl" artists of his time. He painted a beautiful image of a distressed damsel in duress titled Short on Sails...

The Lonesome Lady was painted by Barut, who was employed before the war as an artist with Owens Illinois Glass. The marker at his final resting place indicates that he was a Corporal who was awarded a Silver Star.

 

[67newport]

the mission symbol is a bomb dropping into a martini​

“Willie the Wolf from the West” had rare tail art, based on a hill billy in a spark plug advertisement​

Nemesis of Aeroembolism, a test B17 used to do the research on high altitude operations, once with a "para-pooch" dog named major, who static line dropped from 26000 feet, doing the doggy paddle all the way down​

The Boeing Test engineers possibly painted this special medical nose art for Aero Medical Laboratory staff at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, in 1943. The dark haired lady “Aeroembolism” [wearing a gold bikini] has been twined by two gold snakes as she stands on her tip-toes over the badge of the Air Forces Material Command at Wright Field, Ohio.

It is believed the nose art was painted at the Boeing Test Laboratory just before the aircraft was flown to Material Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, on her second tour of High Altitude flights in September 1943.

Notice the dog in the crew photo, that's Major.

The “Strato-Gremlin” was painted on the nose after each high altitude [40,000 ft. or more] flight. It is believed the same fuselage art of the Strato-Gremlin was painted on 41-2407, however, no photo proof can be found.

First assigned to Material Command, Wright Field, Ohio, where high altitude testing began 1 November 1942. This Boeing aircraft conducted high altitude parachute drops and almost killed Dr. Randolph Lovelace in June 1942, when he jumped from 40,200 feet.

They used rubber dummies for most test drops, then in April 1944, purchased a 145 lb. St. Bernard dog from the Dayton, Ohio, dog pound for $3.

Poor old “Major” was pushed out at 26,000 feet [wearing his custom oxygen mask] and survived his first test drop, measuring the parachute straps opening shock effects.

“Major” the Saint Bernard that would parachute out of an adapted B-17G. The images (from upper left and moving clockwise): adapted B-17G airplane used for the research; custom insignia on the nose of the B-17G; “Major” in his flight suit; custom dog-faced oxygen mask; key moments in the descent where there are great forces exerted on the body; graph showing the opening shock pressure as recorded by the tensiometer.

the mission symbol is the Strato Gremlin

Aviation Gremlins are defined as “Mythical elves, upon whom military pilots are said to blame all their troubles and sometimes their good luck.”

Reference to the mischievous Gremlin first appears in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1929; however, by World War 2 (1939-1945), the science of “Gremlinology” was firmly entrenched in RAF lore. By 1941, the first Gremlin sightings were reported at airfields in America and onboard warplanes of the U. S. Army Air Forces (USAAF).

One of the most cantankerous, altitudinous Jinxes was the Strato-Gremlin who menaced the big Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and its aircrew. Strato-Gremlins were rarely encountered below 35,000 feet and were thought to be responsible for all aero medical and mechanical problems airmen encountered in the stratosphere.

Case in point. Every time the USAAF’s flying research laboratory, Boeing B-17E #13 (ser. no. 41-2407)—a.k.a. The Nemesis of Aeroembolism—passed through 40,000 feet, the Nemesis often developed an oil leak in one of its turbo-supercharged radial engines, or a case of the “bends” in one of its flight crew.

These problems were suspected to be the work of Strato-Gremlins because shortly after landing at Boeing Field or Wright Field, another Strato-Gremlin appeared painted on the ship’s starboard bow!Coincidence? The aviation physiologists thought not!

To educate aviators of the dangers of the pesky Aviation Gremlins, the USAAF prepared field guides to identify the different members of the Gremlin family.

The most dangerous aero medical gremlin, of course, was the beautiful Gremlin Annwho left men gasping for breath the higher they ascended. She “loved great big strong men who don’t need to use their oxygen equipment.” Once reaching the substratosphere, Ann knocks ya (anoxia!) for a loop and then turned loose her four stooges to make airmen suffer more, including Cockeyed Charlie, Stuttering Sam, Blind-as-a-Bat Bill, and Droop the Dope.

At altitudes above 25,000 feet, the high-altitude gal, Bubbles Nitrogen(Fig.1), full of sparkling vivacity and nitrogen, cuddled airmen and gave them bubbles in their blood, after which Rheumatic Rheuben attacked the men's joints with his ax to produce the pains known as “flier’s bends”. Additionally, big, strong Choking Choseph (Fig. 2) hugged airmen full of Bubbles N2 with his huge arms and gave them the “chokes”. The Rebreather Bag Boys were always trying to cut off an aviator’s oxygen supply at altitude due to a detached oxygen hose or by poor care of the pilot’s oxygen equipment. Likewise, Wet Oxygen Willie, froze oxygen regulators and tubing at high altitudes. Perhaps the most obnoxious gremlin was Windy, a most unsocial gremlin who forced airmen to choose a meal of beans, cabbage, and hot dogs before a high-altitude mission. Then, after reaching 38,000 feet and the gases in their intestines had expand 5-fold, he’d give them the works!

And, of course, on long missions, Joe Flight Gremlin whacked airmen’s muscles and joints with his spiked club making them achy and sore. There also was the Icy Gremlin,the Blackout Gremlin, the Spandules, and so many more…too many to list here.

As Dr. Major Randy Lovelace of the Wright Field Aero Medical Lab often mused: “Gremlins are to aviators what children are to your home. They’re brats but you love them… What would man’s ambition be without his children? What would aviation be without its Gremlins?”

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-hml...w172138__98998.1612227266.jpg?c=1&imbypass=on
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/41-2407
https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1096/fasebj.2022.36.S1.R2083


The Boeing Experimental [Flight Test] organization was involved with developing, proving, and test flying the next production B-17 model, which included high altitude flights. At least four different test Boeing models were assigned to high altitude testing in 1941, beginning with B-17C, serial 40-2042. [No known nose art] Accepted Boeing Field 21 July 1940, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, December 1940 to August 1941. Crashed New Albany, OH, 25 January 1943, killing seven.

The seventh production B-17E, serial 41-2399, was assigned as a test model, November 1941, fitted with a new B-17F nose and a modified smaller rudder for higher altitude test flights.

This aircraft conducted extended high altitude flights at Boeing Field, Seattle, and Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. After each test flight [0ver 40,000 ft.] a small “Strato-Gremlin” was painted on the nose, just like a bomb painted for WWII combat missions.

It is possible this original aircraft art was created at Boeing Field in Seattle, however, this has never been confirmed and might remain in Boeing WWII files today.

 

[67newport]

 

[67newport]

P-38 Lightning “Der Gabelshwanz Teufel” - (“The Fork-Tailed Devil”)​

 

[67newport]

8th Air Force Boeing B-17E 41-9154 “THE BAT OUTA HELL” at RAF Polebrook, England, October 1942​

 

[Snotty]

Is that an E or a D? Nose cone looks like a D.

 

[3175375]

2 B-36s had a ground mishap on August 22 1951 at Travis AFB, California.
I plucked this from the book ‘Magnesium Overcast’, a history of the B-36 ‘Peacemaker’. Note: The B-36 never officially received any name.

 

[3175375]

While at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum yesterday, I saw a couple of aircraft worth mentioning.
A B-17 that was ditched in New Guinea and afterwards was referred to as the Swamp Ghost. It’s been recovered and is here, awaiting restoration funds. Disney worked with the museum to create the nose art.

Second, a TA-3B Skywarrior that has a family and personal connection for me is now parked outside. It originally was a trainer and baled to Hughes Aircraft Company in the late 60s. The aircraft was originally modified to develop the AWG-9 radar weapons system (including the AIM-54 Phoenix missile) for the F-111B for the Navy. After the F-111B program was cancelled, the spec for its replacement required the new aircraft to accommodate the AWG-9. This ended up as the F-14A Tomcat.
The A-3 (nicknamed Bloodhound 77) was modified for the F-14 installation and it actually launched a Phoenix missile.

In the mid 70’s, it was used to train Imperial Iranian Air Force Radar Intercept Officers (RIO). My dad’s youngest brother was involved in training them at Point Mugu when he was in the Navy (F-4 WSO and F-14 RIO on the USS America).

In the mid 80’s, BL-77 was once again modified to be used in the development of the APG-71 radar that was part of the F-14D. I got to spend some time integrating a scan converter into the aircraft to record the DD (radar return) video onto video tape.
Later, BL-77 was modified to develop the upgraded B-2 Spirit radar (new antenna and associated equipment).
After that the aircraft was de modified and barged to the Pearl Harbor Museum.

It was neat to reflect back on the long history of this aircraft, my uncle’s, coworkers and my own involvement in the development and support of our country’s defense and to ‘close out’ the book (in my mind) of this aircraft.

(The last picture is one that I got that shows my uncle in the back seat of an F-14 flying low over the Mediterranean Sea in the mid 70’s.
I had stumbled across it in an F-14 forum and I sent it to my uncle, who couldn’t believe how I obtained it. It ended up in an Osthus Military Service book that was published by a distant cousin.

 

[67newport]

 

[3175375]

Flak-Bait: The Legendary B-26 That Refused to Fall. Flak-Bait: The Legendary B-26 That Refused to Fall - Jets ’n’ Props

I thought I had heard of that name before: I built this Monogram model back before I had a license:

 

[Snotty]

Looks like The Lost Invader was being used for parts.

 

[patrick66]

Is that Harrison Ford in the B-24? I knew he was old, and a pilot, but sheesh, that long ago?

If Ford were 110 years old, perhaps!