Wwi Fighter Nose Art Shoot Down Icons Wwi Fighter Shot Down Icons

"Thanks for painting me cantankerous-eyed, y'all jackwagons..."

"One question answered," he called to the ground. "It'southward a warplane." No craft whose purpose was peaceful would have had those glaring eyes and that snarling, fang-filled mouth painted on its belly.

So you have your Cool Plane and your Cool Ship, but somehow, they're notwithstanding not cool enough, truly non worthy of such a badass Ace Pilot as yourself. Y'all know what would help? Let'due south paint a freaking shark confront on the nose. That volition get the desired reaction from your enemies. Plus, it'll expect dandy at airshows! The Airplane Spotters love this kind of thing!

Typically, you will see five varieties of this:

• Distinctive artwork on the nose or tail. If on the nose, expect something akin to the classic "Shark nose" made famous during World State of war II. If on the tail, expect distinctive (or even flashy) designs intended to easily identify the aeroplane'south unit of measurement.
• The "Pin-Up Girl". Fabricated famous in Globe War II, these designs often featured scantily-clad (or nude) women in suggestive poses. Many of these were very temporary in nature, and it was non at all rare for the pinup fine art to reverberate the name of the aircraft (such as the famous "Memphis Belle"). Though common amidst American aircraft in WWII and Korea, it went out of style after that, due to certain individuals declaring information technology "obscene," "sexist," and "unprofessional" for young men to fly high-risk combat missions with such markings on their aircraft. RAF aviators maintained the practise through the 1991 Gulf War before the same forces caught upwardly with them. The practice survives to this day however, thanks to British tycoon Richard Branson employing pin-up nose art styled around its utilize in Earth War II (dubbed 'The Flying Lady') on every plane in the armada of his airline, Virgin Atlantic.
• Full-body flashy paintjobs. Often invoked when Rule of Cool is the main motivator behind the paint scheme. This is common for demonstration aircraft used at air shows or VIP transports not intended to be used near the front lines. Sometimes, even camouflage tin can fit into this category, every bit some patterns designed to be very effective at a distance tin await downright garish upward close. Information technology was most common for combat shipping in WWI, when famous aces on both sides wanted everyone to know they were at that place. Manfred Von Richtofen's "Flying Circus" took this to extremes, with every plane wearing a distinctive garish paint chore, with all-reddish airplanes being reserved for the personal use of the young Baron himself.
• Patriotic slogans or pictures. This kind of nose art was especially popular in USSR (and is however in Russia), where pilots named their planes subsequently their parents, siblings, fallen comrades or historical national heroes (Dimitri Donskoy, Aleksandr Nevsky, Aleksandr Suvorov etc). Some artforms could describe a Soviet hawkeye subduing a Fascist beast, or slogans similar "Mstitel" (Avenger), "Na Zapad" (To W!), Za Rodiny ("For Fatherland") or "Smiert fashistam" (Death to Fascists). They were besides popular in the USAAF and RAF. Can oft exist combined with Type-B.
• Victory marks. A tally of how many kills/successful missions a pilot has achieved. The more there are, the more badass the pilot/craft is. They can vary in course from simple tally marks to decals of the victims' roundels or flags.
• Humorous cartoons. This type was particularly popular in the USAAF and Finnish air forces, and would frequently depict a pop cartoon character, such as Donald Duck or Batman. This type of olfactory organ art is common even today. It usually depicts either the state of war itself or the enemy in ironic or satirical way, and is usually connected to the individual name of the plane. The extreme instance of this was a B-24M Liberator 44-49853 It Ain't So Funny , whose unabridged olfactory organ was covered with cartoon characters.

In Real Life, this trope has generally get much more subdued due to a combination of PR and practicality. Flashy artwork tended to clash with specially-designed camouflage patterns designed to assist conceal the plane in combat, making such artwork Awesome, but Impractical. Even the traditionally applied roundel insignia, such as the RAF's bullseye had to be replaced with subdued monochrome variants. A typical workaround with those limitations is to put the artwork in a normally-concealed identify, like the inside of the wheel wells, or to merely draw information technology in less contrasting colors.

On the other hand, olfactory organ fine art can be an immense morale heave. The nose art personifies and antropomorphizes the aircraft, creating a bail between the inanimate airplane and its pilot (and ground crew). Even in air forces where strict discipline was stressed, some grade of nose art was always tolerated.

Since Tropes Are Flexible, this applies to other vehicles or equipment likewise, as long as it fits the spirit of the trope. Compare Itasha, which involves flashy (and nerdy) paintjobs applied to cars. If the ammunition has nose art on it, then information technology is a Marked Bullet.

Can overlap with Ace Custom, which is when the vehicle'due south design, rather than it's decoration, is unique, often to give a particularly important hero (or villain) particular advantages. Nose art may display the ship or aeroplane's name.

This is not for examples of face painting, tattoos, or artwork inspired by the human nose.

Truth in Television.

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Examples:

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    Anime and Manga

• Mobile Arrange Gundam: Many of Char Aznable'southward Ace Custom mobile suits featured his trademark red paintjob. Played Straight to the point of parody, where several mangas even featured "Char Aznable" custom RB-79 Ball designs, painted cherry with horns fastened.
  • We actually get to encounter the classic shark face on a few Federation units. MS Igloo features a Ball with one and in that location's a popular artbook scan featuring a GM Custom from 0083 in a hangar getting one painted onto its helmet.
  • And so in that location'southward all of Norba Shino'due south Mobile Suits in Mobile Suit Gundam: Atomic number 26-Blooded Orphans, which is a combination of types A (shark smiling keepsake on the olfactory organ, or in this example the head area) and C (a flashy pink paintjob).
  • The original MSV series of model kits and accompanying story inserts gives us an case of the archetype pin-up daughter version, with the "Gouf Lady", an MS-07 with a topless woman on its shoulder wearing a Stripperific version of the Mobile Adapt's ain armor, serving as a precursor to the MS Girls artbooks by the guy who made Milky way Fraulein Yuna.
• Macross, as befitting a series featuring transforming fighter jets:

    Comic Books

• Fearfulness Amanuensis: Houston'southward Retro Rocket is decorated with a shark-toothed grin.
• The Avatar Press War Stories series by Garth Ennis has a Variant Cover for each upshot featuring pin-upwardly-girl Nose Art.
• The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The B-17 that ends up used in experiments that turn it invisible at the push of a push has art of Wonder Woman with her bullet repelling bracers crossed defensively on information technology.
• Depending on the Artist, but when the Batplane isn't shown every bit really bat-shaped, information technology usually maintains its Thememobile status past having Batman''s cowl painted on the olfactory organ.

    Motion-picture show — Blithe

• Tony Trihull, the Lemon battleship from Cars 2, has a shark face painted onto his hull.

    Moving picture — Live-Action

• In Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kurtz delivers a scathing and spot-on assessment of the discontinuation of this do.

  Kurtz: We railroad train young men to drib fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes considering information technology'south obscene!

  • In an earlier scene, Colonel Kilgore flies into battle in a Huey with "Death from Above" painted on its olfactory organ.
    • The Hueys of the 1st Air Cavalry have the units crossed saber insignia on their noses (which the real unit was known to do in real life, some even wore Stetsons like Kilgore.
• Memphis Belle: The Belle and all the other bombers have nose art, with the bombers' callsigns being derived from the olfactory organ art (Ane of the other planes is called "C-Cup"). Given the express number of flyable B-17s, most had unlike nose art on each side.
  • 1944 documentary The Memphis Belle, which made that particular plane famous and loosely inspired the 1990 film, shows that this is Truth in Tv. There's actually a montage of all the nose art of the bombers in the squadron. 1 aeroplane chose to avoid cheesecake and instead had a painting of a skunk squirting Hitler, with the caption "In Der Fuhrer'due south Face".
• Wartime documentary Report from the Aleutians shows an American fighter plane with its entire nose painted to await like a tiger.
• Carmine Tails, a 2012 film based on the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen, takes its proper noun from the highly recognizable pigment task their planes featured. (See also The Tuskegee Airmen and the Real Life section beneath)
  • Several pilots in the pic also had small logos painted under the cockpits to tie in with their callsigns, and Pretty Boy had his yellow-nosed fighters.
• The Tuskegee Airmen, an HBO motion picture from The '90s about the commencement black fighter pilots in the US war machine during World War 2, featured the pilots painting the tails of their fighters bright cherry-red, to ensure that the white bomber crews would know who was protecting them. (Encounter Real Life below)
  • The Luftwaffe's yellow-nosed BF 109s too appear in the film.
• Serenity shows that the ship's name is painted in a stylized seal on the bow of the ship, in both English and Chinese.
  • The crew later invokes this trope by disguising their ship every bit a Reaver vessel, complete with lots of carmine paint and man corpses lashed to the hull.
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo has the Ruptured Duck, the principal grapheme, Helm Ted Due west. Lawson'south aircraft. Based on the real aircraft from the Doolittle raid.
• In the Transformers Film Series, many of the paintjobs used by the Autobots in vehicle mode could arguably count, but the best example is Starscream's Cybertronian State of war Tattoos, a set of Cybertronian writing covering his unabridged body, starting immediately later the Decepticons drop the Masquerade in Revenge Of The Fallen.
• Watchmen: In the Opening Montage nosotros run into a bomber with nose art of the original Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter).
• Aliens had the Colonial Marine's Dropship. On the nose was an eagle in combat boots and the phrase "We Endanger Species". The marines had slogans painted on their armor and weapons as well.
• In Flyboys, the Lafayette Escadrille members each pigment a personal symbol on the side of their biplanes. Blaine Rawlings uses the logo of his old ranch in Texas.
• Avatar: Trudy has a bluish and white cheatline painted on her Samson helo in the film's climax, matching the warpaint worn by her Na'6 allies.
• Pacific Rim: All the Jaegers have impale markings and various other writing on them. Gipsy Danger sports a pinup on the right chest plate (by Word of God in emulation of Globe War II bombers).
• Only Old Men Are Going to Battle: Capt. Titarenko is the leader of a Soviet fighter pilot team that regularly goes into battle against the Luftwaffe. He is as well a great music enthusiast and amateur musician who has organized the men of his squadron into a band. The nose of his fighter plane is busy by a bar of canvas music.
• The Eagle and the Militarist: It's a moving-picture show about a Globe War I fighter squadron. Jerry'south plane has a painting of the Grim Reaper on the side. The art is thematically appropriate for an anti-war film in which Jerry slowly breaks down equally the terror and death of aerial combat get to him.

    Literature

• Fifty.A.C. Crews in Honor Harrington frequently adorn their ships with nose art in a directly reference to the olfactory organ art used on aircraft.
• Used every bit cover-up in Path of the Fury by David Weber. The protagonist have a full-on military assault shuttle while posing every bit a gratis trader, which they can hardly justify given their cover. They requite it the most garish paintjob imaginable.

  "Giolitti winced as he took in the garish crimson and black hull. Some unknown creative person had painted staring white eyes on either side of the stiletto prow, jagged-toothed mouths gaped hungrily about the muzzles of free energy and projectile cannons, and lovingly detailed streamers of lurid flame twined virtually the engine pods."

• In The Riftwar Cycle, on Kelewan, seaships take optics painted forrard on the hulls to scare abroad body of water monsters that actually be.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Normally averted in the X-Wing Series (the closest they come is kill markers), merely when Rogue Squadron resigns for the elapsing of The Bacta War, they repaint their X-Wings with individualized paint jobs to further distance themselves from the New Commonwealth military. The straightest instance is Gavin Darklighter, who paints his up similar a krayt dragon: tan with a reptile calibration blueprint, and a toothy mouth similar to the page picture. Ooryl's fighter looks rather plain unless you tin come across in the ultraviolet spectrum.
    • Corran Horn'southward X-Wing has always been painted hunter green with blackness and white trim, because he took it with him when he defected from the Corellian Security Force and never officially signed it over to the New Democracy.
    • When Wraith Squadron goes undercover every bit Space Pirates in Fe Fist, they custom-paint their stolen Necktie Interceptors.
    • In a minor example, the 181st Fighter Grouping, the Rogues' Majestic counterparts, have red stripes downwards the wings of their TIEs (and the sleeves of their flight suits), making them the but Imperial fighters which aren't all-over gray.
  • During the New Jedi Order series, Jaina Solo gives a like order to her personal squadron under non-dissimilar circumstances (ironically, while serving under Wedge Antilles). She paints hers with images of voxyn war beasts, which killed her brother and which she personally helped brand extinct.

    Live-Action Telly

• Babylon five: The Starfuries operated by the Earth Alliance feature a plethora of custom pigment jobs on their upper wings, even on ships flown past Cerise Shirts and Mauve Shirts. Usually information technology volition just be a distinctive design, simply some of the fighters include custom artwork, occasionally taking up the entire summit wing.
  • Two Starfury squadrons are depicted as having whole-torso paint jobs: The escorts for Earth Force One, with a blueish-and-white paint job inspired past the Real Life Air Strength One, and the Black Omega Squadron.
  • In the quaternary season of the show, Helm Sheridan has Babylon 5's emblem painted on the hull of his flagship when he personally leads the fight against President Clark.

    Lt. Corwin: (about White Star 2'south pigment job) I mean... won't they know it's him?
    Ivanova: I believe that's the thought, Lieutenant.

• Several ships and watercraft operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Gild on the Animal Planet series Whale Wars feature this; their rigid inflatable boats and the Bob Barker sport shark mouths on the bow, while the Gojira had a picture of the titular monster before being rechristened the Brigitte Bardot, ^note Due to copyright reasons. whereupon the nose art changed to that of a adult female bearing a trident and the organization's flag.
• In the Boob tube serial Riptide the boys use a custom painted helicopter called "Screaming Mimi."
• Space: To a higher place and Beyond
  • Chiggy Von Richtofen'south Super Epitome has a human skull painted on the nose with Abandon All Hope written on the side...in English, every bit the protagonists note.
  • When the squadron receives its Hammerheads towards the end of the airplane pilot episode, some squadron members pigment slogans on their fighters, such as West's "Above and Beyond" and Hawkes' "Pags' Payback." The nose art isn't seen in future battles, however.
• Type D is parodied in the Non the Nine O'Clock News song "I Like Trucking", with a trucker who keeps a tally of hedgehogs.
• Blake's 7. In "Dawn of the Gods", a robotic slave catcher with teeth painted on the nose and glaring searchlight optics is sent after our heroes. Some find it more than terrifying than others.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): Several pilots from the Battlestar Pegasus take silhouettes of Cylon Raiders painted on their Vipers to indicate how many Raiders they've killed. The crew of the Galactica aren't impressed and Apollo rejects the suggestion they kickoff doing the same affair.

    Pinball

• In Ruiner Pinball, the top of the "Ruiner" table features 2 bomb-dropping pinup girls, "Drib Target" and "Da Bomb".

    Tabletop Games

• Tabletop wargames in general are very keen on this sort of ornament, both because it'due south true to life and considering it allows players who are skilled at modeling and painting a risk to show off. More ofttimes than non, sourcebooks and materials on historical armies and campaigns will include a section on decorating troops and vehicles, sometimes to the level of accurate individual unit of measurement and company flashes.
• BattleTech has Legacy Character "The Bounty Hunter." His Mech is painted a bright green with diverse currency symbols all over it.
  • Custom paint jobs are mostly popular in some MechWarrior circles in the universe, such as amongst mercenaries and — of course — in the game arenas on Solaris VII. Larger forces tend more towards standardization, although unit of measurement-specific pigment schemes (for parade purposes if nada else) aren't uncommon.
  • The spinoff trading bill of fare game had an actual "Intimidating Paint Task ◊" card that could be fastened to a 'Mech to slightly reduce the set on values of (presumably duly shaken) opposing units.
• Eldar Corsairs in Warhammer xl,000 are addicted of ostentatious color schemes, and the Void Dragon Phoenix, a special variant of the Phoenix basis-attack craft, is depicted with a full-body paintjob reminescent of a dragon's scaled hibernate. Their craftworld cousins are also known to embellish their vehicles - a motif from Biel-Tan is a long coil of thorned vines, while the Wild Passenger clans from Saim-Hann are even more than individualized.
  • Majestic aircraft can really buy a distinctive paintjob or decals as an upgrade that let i unit that sees the plane reroll one leadership examination.
    • Imperial tanks and other ground vehicles don't derive any particular special rules from the practice, merely it's still mentioned from time to time in the fluff (such every bit the "Vixens", a tank unit from Death or Glory, whose vehicles feature a cartoon of a fox in a tanker's uniform). And of course Dreadnoughts, being Infinite Marines, tend to be brightly painted in their Chapter colors and heraldry.
  • Orks, existence orks, usually have garish personalized pigment jobs; indeed, information technology's the thought of uniformity that's odd to them. Yes, the scarlet ones go faster.
• In GURPS Lensman, smaller spacecraft have "pin-upward" noseart, often painted by Anson Maynard. According to the Pyramid article "The Brooklyn Bombshell", two of the examples in the volume are modelled on Glamorous Wartime Singer Rachel Ginsberg.

    Toys

• Transformers:
  • The original TakaraTomy Masterpiece Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker figures all came with a sheet of decals that included various Mythology Gag squadron insignia, including Starcream'southward coronation crown, Waspinator, an "Armada" insignia featuring silhouettes of Cyclonus and the Sweeps, and Kremzeek.
  • The Hasbro consequence of Thundercracker in the MP-11 Starscream mold (which actually predates Takara's MP-11T release) features tail art of Thundercracker conveying Soundwave in his tape deck mode like a boombox, over the word "SONICBOOM". The backs of his shoulders (which end up on the sides of his jet way, behind his air intakes) also accept a depiction of Reflector in camera way.
  • The Thrilling thirty version of Doubledealer was a redecorated version of Thrilling 30 Blitzwing that featured nose art of eyes and a toothy rima oris equally a homage to the original toy's alt way of a behemothic birdlike creature with abrupt teeth.
  • Lugnut has been known to sport shark teeth on his olfactory organ, both on his Reveal The Shield toy and the "Atomic Lugnut" redeco of his original Animated toy.

    Video Games

• A staple in the Ace Gainsay series, from virtually Ace Combat three: Electrosphere onwards. Shooting down certain enemy Ace Pilots allows you lot to slap their paint jobs onto your planes of the same model. Other special paint jobs were unlocked by completing certain plot missions. Ace Combat half dozen: Fires of Liberation also introduced downloadable custom pigment jobs.
• Quite a few of the planes and helicopters available in Chiliad Theft Auto V & GTA Online characteristic detailed olfactory organ-art of various types that can exist practical to the shipping.
• In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the titular mech is decorated with a butterfly insignia on its head. Naked Snake uses the word 'nose art' to describe it.
• X2: The Threat allows you to import an epitome file from your computer that would be practical as nose art to all your ships and stations. It could be a pin-upwards, a coat of arms, whatever. (Game Spot's reviewer used a character from The Simpsons.) In X3: Reunion, Pirate ships take flame paint jobs on their nose, with graffiti scrawled over the rest of the ship.
• The A-x Warthog ground assault planes in Battlefield 2 have a warthog face on the olfactory organ of the aircraft.
  • The Vietnam version of the Project Reality mod features UH-1 Huey gunships with a massive shark oral fissure on the olfactory organ of the chopper.
• Sabre Ace: Conflict Over Korea used the "shark mouth" on the F-51 Mustang.
• Squad Fortress ii features a rather half-assed variant on the payload carts. It seems that the Heavy vandalizes them; they all have something he says scratched into the paintjob or spraypainted on them. For example, the 1 that's used most often says "Weep SOME MORE" on it. Ane of them also happens to be designed like a mechanical shark's head.
• MechWarrior Living Legends's lookout man aircraft, the Sparrowhawk ◊, has a shark mouth and triangular optics painted onto each side of the catamaran-like fuselage. The rest of the arts and crafts is painted with reddish stripes. A secret camouflage for the Uziel battlemech gives it a bright red paintjob, with eyes and a mouth painted on its protruding cockpit.
• The officially released MechWarrior 4 titles featured a fair amount of pigment work, which only grew in number and complication as time passed and Game Mods were introduced. It is probably no surprise that a large number of Atlas paintjobs emphasize that it has a Skull for a Head, usually in some manner of bone-white, gap-toothed grotesqueness. A number of 'Mechs with 'fuselage' bodies (that is, longer front to back than tall) take optional paint jobs featuring the iconic shark-mouth nose art.
• The Crimson Baron games feature aces from both sides of the war who take their own custom paintjobs, including the Ruby Baron himself. Yous can go i, too, provided y'all exercise well enough in the campaign.
• Certain planes in IL-2 Sturmovik tin can be customized with these. Virtually of the available nose arts are reminiscent of existent WWII nose arts, merely information technology'southward possible to modernistic in your own equally we'll see .
• Equally prominently displayed in the closing movie, the Highwind of Final Fantasy Vii has a Pivot Up girl on the nose. Cid calls her "Lady Luck" and occasionally calls out to her to assist him.
• In Starcraft II, the Goliath has several variant skins, randomly applied when the unit is created, that accept different body art ◊, including flames, teeth, angel wings, and the Amalgamated flag.
  • The Marine unit has a large diverseness of helmet decorations, similar wolf/tiger/panda faces or a Rage Helm. Some are bachelor as in-game avatars.
  • Tychus Findlay has a pinup on 1 of his pauldrons in a retro style (she's the celebrity who goes in and out of rehab in the bottom text of the UNN broadcasts).
• Southward.50.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International is positively drowning in olfactory organ art choices. In that location are hundreds of paint and image decorations available for buy and employ on any SV. Amidst them are a number of national flags, various derisive comments, and the ever-popular shark smiling.
• Used on a couple of hacked Combine turrets in One-half-Life ii: Episode ii. One features the famous shark-nose design, while the other has orangish stripes and the resistance'south (and the serial') signature lambda logo.
• Persona 5: 1 of the grapheme'southward Guardian Entity, Helm Kidd, stands on top of a miniature pirate ship with a Slasher Smile shark grin painted on the bow.
• In Fallout four, finding the right issue of Hot Rodder magazine in the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth will allow y'all to give your suits of Powered Armor a shark mouth paintjob, which looks better on some models than others, merely always grants a bonus to your Agility when worn. Alternating color schemes include black flames on a red groundwork or white scallops on pink.

    Webcomics

• In the future of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, the practice is revived for spaceships, likely considering of Rule of Cool (given how wars themselves are fought on that). Commander Badass's former command ship has a pinup of his now ex-wife painted on. When asked by his successor a few years afterward if they should modify information technology, he refused, saying that just crusade they divorced doesn't mean she's non hot. Besides, she'd probably be flattered. Discussion of God confirms that yes, she would be flattered… especially since it outlasted his command.
• I arc of Air Force Blues is devoted to the pilots decorating and naming their new F-22s. Lt. Willows (callsign "Leia") paints a lei on her nose and mudflap girls on her wings.

    Spider web Video

• Used for irony in the opening shot of Крепость (aka Fortress), in which automatic aircraft conduct out bombing missions long later anyone who tin appreciate the scantily-clad babe riding a cluster flop has been killed.

    Western Animation

    Real Life

• The practise dates all the way back to the first major apply of airplanes in boxing: World War I. Pilots painted designs on their airplanes both to personalize them and to brand them easier to identify on the battlefield (every bit much to avoid shooting friendly planes as to avert being shot at by friendly ground forces.)
  • Probably the nigh famous instance from that war, of course, would be Manfred von Richthofen, AKA The Red Baron, with his Fokker Triplane's red full-trunk paintjob.
    • Carmine was the unit colour of Manfred von Richthofen'south old Uhlan cavalry regiment. His brother, Lothar, was a Hussar earlier joining the Luftwaffe, and he painted his plane yellow, the Hussar unit colour.
  • Allied aviators would paint tricolor roundels and tail flashes on their planes (afterward before feel taught that the Royal Flight Corps's Marriage Jack could be easily dislocated for the Germans' Fe Cross. The British, French, Russians, and Americans all used a red-white-blue pattern, with the Brits using red-white-blue (center outwards), the French using blueish-white-red, and the Russians and Americans both used white-blue-red, the US Army Air Service not entering the war until the Purple Russian Air Service had disbanded with the collapse of the Russian Empire.
    • Ironically, the Americans had previously used a ruby star for their aircraft earlier entering World War I. The Russians would get on to adopt a cherry star roundel for the Soviet Air Forces, meaning the two countries finer traded insignia at around the same time.
  • The Americans officially restricted the utilise of unit of measurement insignia to adorn Army Air Service fighters until late in the war, due to concerns that they would tip off the Germans whenever the Americans were redeploying their forces (the arrival of the 4 squadrons of the Outset Pursuit Group, for example, frequently preceded major American offenses).
• Personalized olfactory organ art for private planes reached its superlative during WWII, being popular with all of the Western Allies' air forces (the Us Navy had strict—and frequently cleaved—regulations against it, while the Soviets usually preferred patriotic slogans to images). Planes bore images of pinup girls in various states of undress, cartoon characters, patriotic images, insulting caricatures of Hitler and/or Tojo, jokes, and many other subjects. Names and images could be chosen by airmen or ground crews (normally by consensus of everyone assigned to the aircraft). Many American units singled out basis crewmen with artistic skills and assigned them to practice zero simply paint and maintain the nose fine art of their planes.
  • A notable example is Staff Sergeant Sarkis E. Bartigian of the the 43rd Battery Group (Heavy), whose artwork on B-24 Liberators would cover much of the aeroplane. His best-known piece of work, 44-40973 The Dragon and His Tail , had the titular dragon running the entire length of the fuselage. Bartigian was too the creative person of the to a higher place-mentioned It Ain't So Funny.
  • An American B-24 pilot in the 15th Air Strength decided to pigment a 10-foot diameter bullseye on the outside of his plane'due south cockpit, centered on his own seat, with the challenge "Come up and get me, you bastards!" prominently marked with it. Whether he had a expiry wish or was just that confident in the skill of his gunners is open for discussion.
• During Earth War II, The American Volunteer Group, also known as The Flying Tigers, were famous for the shark-nose paint jobs ◊ on their Curtis P-40 Warhawks. Of course, while they are famous for using the shark-nose paint scheme, they were non the first Allied squadron to do so, having drawn inspiration from photos of British planes in Africa. Shark-noses actually starting time appeared on High german Bf-110s, ◊ which the British took initial inspiration from.
  • The nose of P-twoscore with its distinctive radiator housing just cried for a shark rima oris. That scheme was pop everywhere amid the P-forty units, including versions featuring tigers, skulls, and anything else with a oral fissure.
  • The Flying Tigers' winged tiger insignia was designed by Walt Disney Studios: At ane point Disney had five artists assigned full time to the creation of insignia for whatsoever centrolineal ship or unit that requested i. Ironically, they didn't practice much nose art for individual airplanes. Not racy plenty, apparently.
  • Similarly, the 332d Fighter Grouping was famous in Europe for painting the tails of their planes red, earning them the nickname "Crimson Tailed Angels" by the Bomber pilots they escorted. Nowadays they are famous, of course, for being the get-go black fighter pilots in US armed services history, the Tuskegee Airmen, who are said (though disproved in 2007) to have never let a bomber under their protection be shot down by an enemy plane.
  • Likewise, a 9th AF P-47 unit, the 358th Fighter Group, became known as "The Orange Tails" for this reason.
  • Not to forget 8th Air Forcefulness 352nd Fighter Grouping, the "Blueish-Nosed Birds of Bodney".
  • 15th Air Forcefulness 325th Fighter Group, the "Checkertail Clan", whose P-47 and P-51 aircraft entire empennage was painted with yellowish and blackness checkerboard pattern.
  • The Germans were big fans of this too. Messerschmitt BF 109s typically featured yellow noses, the paint scheme originally beingness adopted to avoid beingness shot at past their own troops while attacking ground targets. Supposedly, the Germans lost more fighters to friendly fire from ground troops during the invasion of Poland than they did from the Polish military.
    • Erich Hartmann, history's highest-scoring fighter ace, had a stylized flower, a black tulip, on the olfactory organ of his Bf 109. Soviet pilots apace learn to recognize the design. Hartmann would swap airplanes with his wingmen so that he could engage unsuspecting enemies in an unmarked aircraft while the wingman could safely gain experience in an aeroplane the enemy avoided. All the same, he eventually got rid of the tulip birthday considering Soviet pilots refused to engage whatever aircraft in germination with the black tulip.
  • The shark oral fissure is the most frequent olfactory organ art diverseness to have survived the Moral Guardians into the present solar day and remains quite popular across dozens of air forces (and is quite common on boats and vehicles likewise). The USAF'due south A-x Thunderbolt, seen in the folio image, is rarely seen without it, but dissimilar the A-10 pictured in a higher place, nigh of them feature a unique variant featuring especially prominent tusks—a reference to the A-10's popular nickname, the Warthog.
• The distinctive Invasion Stripes insignia was painted on fighters, reconnaissance planes, transports, and twin-engined bombers belonging to the Allied nations during and after the Battle of Normandy, in order to prevent friendly-fire incidents among the thousands of aircraft operating over Western Europe. The exercise ended a few months afterwards considering the paint jobs also fabricated it much easier for German pilots to spot the planes on the basis.
  • Besides the distinctive paint job ◊ of the FW-190Ds of Jagdverband 44, which were tasked with providing protection for Me-262 jet fighters during accept-off and landing. As such they operated only in the shut vicinity of their airfield and avoiding friendly fire from AA guns was more than of import than being difficult to see.
  • In that location's a whole history of armed services aircraft being painted with special markings to prevent confusion with the enemy. When information technology starting time entered service, the Hawker Typhoon sported "invasion stripes" on its underside (long earlier D-Day) to prevent it existence mistaken for a German aircraft. In the PTO, Allied shipping quickly lost whatsoever red in their national markings to forestall defoliation with Japanese aeroplanes; the RAAF took this to an extreme as the years passed, outset painting the leading edges of the wings of their aircraft white (likewise used by US P-47 Thunderbolts in Europe to distinguish them from Fw-190s) and then painting the entire tail white.
    • The Japanese painted the leading edges of the wings of their fighters yellow as a recognition aid.
• In 1944, the U.Southward. Ground forces Air Forcefulness began using onetime battle worn bombers equally Associates Ships, (Sometimes called "Judas Goats") to assist squadrons in assembling into formations for bombing missions over Germany. These were painted in bright garish colors, to make them easier to spot past the crews of the bomber groups. These elderly B 24s, and B 17s were but used to form upwards on, and did not continue to the targets. Some examples can be seen here and here. ◊
• During The Vietnam War, information technology wasn't unusual to see shark faces ◊ painted on Huey Cobra helicopter gunships.
• Upwards till quite recently, well-nigh prototypes of new fighter aircraft were painted in bright colours non as well dissimilar from those that might be found on the championship mecha of a Humongous Mecha serial. Instance here. ◊ Of course, a prototype would accept none of the practical concerns of a production aircraft destined for the battleground, and indeed, beingness highly visible would be considered a plus given that the whole purpose of a prototype is to demonstrate whether or not it works.
• The image YF-23 Black Widow had secret red markings painted on it made to look like the "hourglass" on a blackness widow spider. These were actually ruddy markings painted on sharp edges on some of the aircrafts hatches, supposedly as a condom measure, but in reality a way to utilise this trope even though they were supposedly forbidden from doing so by the Air Force.
• Shipping belonging to the United States Air National Baby-sit typically feature a tail wink with their country's flag, and aircraft in agile duty wings volition oftentimes take colour-coded tail flashes to distinguish jets from separate squadrons within the wing.
• A US Navy tradition is for ane or two aircraft per squadron to be brightly painted with the squadron'southward colors and emblazoned with its emblems, while the balance are the usual haze-gray low-visiblity paint scheme. These aircraft typically "belong" to the squadron'southward commanding officer or executive officeholder, who beingness more senior wing less often and are not every bit likely to come across straight combat. This allows the squadron to show off its traditions and pride while remaining maximally combat effective. The planes are notwithstanding fully functional and deadly, however.
• It is fairly common for military shipping to receive flashier paintjobs for airshows, in order to brand them more than entertaining for the crowds.
  • Here is a list of Civilian and Military aerobatic teams via The Other Wiki
• Milestone anniversaries are popular occasions to break out the paint for war machine aircraft. Squadrons from across the world will paint ane (or all) of their aircraft to honor the anniversary of the founding of their nation, their co-operative of service, or fifty-fifty their specific unit. Anniversaries celebrating when sure aircraft were first introduced are besides common, as are anniversaries of certain battles. Some examples:
• NATO squadrons have an annual tradition known as the "Tiger Run into," which involves any squadrons that thematically involve tigers or other kinds of large cats (either in their name, or their unit of measurement patch/coat of arms). In addition to existence a joint military exercise, Tiger Meets also involve a nose art painting contest, in which the squadrons compete to make the coolest tiger (or big-cat) themed paint job they can. These schemes run the gamut of types, ◊ from nose art or tail fin flashes ◊ to total-body paint jobs. ◊
  • Since they are only Honorary Members of the NATO Tiger Association, American and Canadian tiger-themed squadrons take their ain Tiger Meet of the Americas for the purpose of hosting the effect on their side of the pond. Similar with the European-based Tiger Run across, paint job competitions are a cardinal event.
• During the later office of Globe War Ii, nearly USAAF planes were never painted at all, except for their national insignia, unit markings (which became much more than gaudy and colorful as a effect) and tail number, and personalized olfactory organ art. The plane was sent out of the factory in blank aluminum blend without paint (except for the national insignia ^note most planes likewise kept an olive drab or black console called a "glare shield" along the tiptop of the engine cowling to stop the airplane pilot beingness dazzled past reflections). The reasons were that it was cheaper and quicker to skip the paint chore; and the plane, beingness somewhat lighter without paint, was also slightly faster (and used slightly less fuel), and that by this point the Americans were putting then many planes into the air over Frg and Japan on a daily ground that camouflaging them was fairly pointless ^note High-altitude bombers were also pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to spot by looking for the prominent contrails they left behind. All the more so when 300 or more of them flew in formation. By 1945, a single strike regularly consisted of over a thousand B-17s or B-24s. The USAF continued this do with all of its aircraft until the early on 1960s, when planes sent to Vietnam received the distinctive and iconic Bounding main (Southeast Asia) camouflage scheme, and nonetheless did it with stateside shipping for a few more than years after that.
• Ancient Greek triemes painted eyes at the bow, near the ram.
• The carved dragon figureheads on Viking longships probably authorize.
  • Besides the figureheads on Historic period of Sail ships.
• Sword hilts and sheaths were a favorite identify to put decoration, not least because someone who could beget a sword could afford to make information technology look cool. Early Medieval swords oft had the name of the owner or the proper noun of the smith engraved in them.
• In full general this is a homo practise from the dawn of time. Because, y'all know, humans need to gloat their favorite sport.
• Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), a regional discount airline in the United States, decided to bear witness its sense of sense of humor by having a big grinning painted on the nose of all of its planes, ◊ accompanied past the ad slogan "Catch Our Smile." When PSA was bought out past US-Air, sometime PSA mechanics would paint smiles on the new U.s.a.-Air planes as a joke.
• Nose art backfired for a much-disliked airplane pilot in the Royal Navy'southward Fleet Air Arm, who insisted his hangar coiffure rename his airplane after his girlfriend. He was not nice about and information technology and did not ask - he ordered ^annotation In most militaries, including those of the Usa and UK, an aircraft is traditionally "owned" by its ground crew, as they spend their days and nights doing the nearly important piece of work of keeping information technology airworthy. The airplane pilot and aircrew (if any) only infringe the plane from them. A pilot disrespects this tradition at his own peril. Thus, while pilots are commonly allowed input in choosing/designing nose art, the final say rests with the maintainers. The irritated coiffure painted the name "Phyllis" on the nose of his aeroplane as ordered. The pilot pronounced himself satisfied. After a discreet interval, the letters "SY-" were painted in front of the proper name. The airplane pilot did non notice. Everyone else on the carrier did.
  • Armada Air Arm olfactory organ art could exist very witty, such equally the two Firefly fighters, "Evelyn Tentions" and "Lucy Quipment". Evil Intentions and Loose Equipment)
• German U-boats would have decal painted on their conning tower. Among the most well-known was the "Laughing Sawfish" of U-96.
• The Four Sisters of the Quaternary Anti-Tank Helicopter Squad. A JSDF attack helicopter unit decorated their aircraft with colorful images of Moe female characters, and drew quite a flake of public attention over information technology, before being told by the Ministry of Defence force to cut it out and remove the artwork.
• There is a story (probably apocryphal, but you never know) of a grouping of American pilots in the Pacific theater of WWII, who one mean solar day decided that before going into combat they would all paint the propellers and noses of their planes brilliant yellow. Then the next time, earlier going into gainsay they painted their noses and propellers vivid blueish. So the next time, they painted them vivid red. And so on. Their thinking was that the Japanese would see the unlike colors and recollect it was a different squadron of fighters every fourth dimension, giving the impression that the Americans had endless waves of fighters.
• Ane popular class of olfactory organ art is to paint icons on the sides of the plane to betoken successes in combat. This could be roundels or flags representing enemy shipping shot down, ships sunk, successful bombing raids performed, and more unusual things similar pieces of heavy construction equipment. In the Pacific Theater of Operations, such equipment was incredibly valuable for building bases and repairing airfields, and more chiefly, was hard for the Japanese troops to replace.
  • There is a story of one American Volunteer Grouping airplane pilot who damaged so many fighters in rough landings and accidents, that his mechanics began to paint American flags on the side of his planes. He would somewhen run into considerable success later in the war as a bomber airplane pilot.
    • This practice became common amid the Western Allied air forces for pilots who tended to crash a lot.
  • USAAF crews flight vital supplies over the Himalayas to the Chinese Nationalists would paint a camel on their C-46 Commando transports for each round trip "over the hump." This was especially hazardous duty equally they had to navigate between the mountains ^annotation The C-46 was (barely) able to climb loftier enough to weave its style through the passes with a full load. The more well-known C-47 Skytrain could not. For that reason, the vast majority of C-46s were assigned to the China-Burma-India theater while C-47s handled cargo flights everywhere else, often in zero visibility while fighting unpredictable crosswinds and post-obit poorly-drawn maps. The Himalayas are littered with still-unrecovered C-46 crash sites.
• Chuck Yeager, the offset man to wing faster than the speed of sound, had "Glamorous Glennis" (his nickname for his wife) painted on the nose of every airplane he flew while in the military. Promotional photos of the Bell 10-ane had the nose art airbrushed out past the U.s. government.
• Skydiving clubs tend to pigment their jump shipping on garish and hit schemes. Justified, since it is besides a safe measure as it helps the plane to exist seen from a distance.
• Major Lauri Bremer of the Finnish Air Force painted a large Ace of Hearts on the rudder of his Fokker D.XXI. Non only it served every bit a recognition insignia (he was the squadron commander), but it was a subtle referral on his wife, Hertta Bremer.
• During the early years of Earth War Ii, a civilian flying auxiliary was formed (initially from a collection of smaller auxiliaries) called the Civil Air Patrol, intended to assist organize civil aviation to support the US state of war attempt (this was inspired by similar efforts in pre-state of war Nazi Deutschland). Once the The states entered the war, CAP pilots, typically in civilian private planes, flew assorted missions in support of the Ground forces and Navy, to include target towing, light transport, wildfire patrols, border patrols, and virtually famously anti-sub patrols off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These planes would become known for their distinctive red-or-yellow ◊ paintjobs featuring a white-and-bluish roundel of a white triangle in a blue circle (the roundel was necessary to grant the crews wartime legal protections if they were captured by the Germans, who could otherwise theoretically charge them of beingness unlawful combatants or spies).
  • In mod times, the Civil Air Patrol paints its fleet of single-engined propeller planes (generally Cessna Skyhawks and Skylanes) in a carmine-white-and-blue paintjob reminiscent of the Air Force Thunderbirds ◊, making CAP'due south aircraft very distinctive compared to about similar civil aircraft.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoseArt

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