Nose Art, 2001 - As

Nose Art, 2001 - As a military history buff and an aviation afficionado, aircraft nose art has always been a fascination. The paintings on B-17s and B-24s during the Second World War summed up the popular art of its time better than Warhol's did the sixties, I think. Fascinating stuff, the subject of nearly as many books as there were aircraft, it seems.

The last forty years have been hell on nose art, though. The need for camouflage and low-contrast paint jobs have made nose art a generally subtle thing (although the A-10 Warthog can occasionally be seen sporting full-color Flying Tiger sharks' teeth, I'm told.

Powerline has the goods on the most evocative piece of nose art to come from the war on terrorism:

The story is fascinating. And I've seen it reproduced - as I recall, on an F-18 flying off one of our big carriers during the Afghan war.

I'm just glad I have a copy now!