Nose Art #1 ~ Meet Donna Rae by bmac62

Photography • Aviation • posted on Jun 15, 2009

Open full image in new tab Zoom on image

Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.

Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.

Description

You don't find "nose art" like this much anymore. In World War II it boosted morale and has been the subject of numerous books since that time. Yesterday, while ducking under wing tips, skirting oil pans, peering into darkened cockpits in the restoration hangar of the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas, I came around a corner and met Donna Rae. The pleasure was all mine :-) She appears a bit worn but graces the left front of a "Twin Beech" right in the middle of a gaggle of other airplanes. Debbielove or I will post the entire airplane one day soon and provide the specs for the aviation buffs among us. Do ZOOM...to really catch the wink. Hope you will keep Donna Rae in mind until we introduce you to Dream Girl at a later time. Bill:)

Comments (34)

)

drace68

8:49PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

My eyes widened. Nice nose art. Hope to see the whole plane. There were many wartime modifications to the basic Model 18 "Kansan." Heck of a plane - it deserves nose art worthy of a B-17.

)

Warblade

9:00PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

I am a big fan of nose art and am sad that it has faded into the past,thanx fgor sharing she is wonderful!

)

orig_buggy

9:08PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

Have you ever seen the movie "Pearl Harbor" ....it shows a gentleman painting this scene.....it's interesting!!

)

auntietk

9:09PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

You're going to show us the whole plane? Auntie thinks hard, puzzled by the idea of posting ALL of something. What a concept! It's so ... extravagant! This is my kind of shot! Not nose art in particular, but just showing part of something, implying the rest. Nicely done!

)

tennesseecowgirl

9:30PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

Well I share the same middle name with this beauty.. Cute and very fun shot Bill.

)

goodoleboy

9:43PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

Absolutely riveting. Stellar mammaries, but lots of meat on those legs. The kind of girl you want to bring home to mother. Great POV, clarity, colors and closeup of this beauty, but I wonder why the artist decided to outline the young lady with a narrow band of blue. I think it would have done well without that feature.

)

npauling

9:59PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

She certainly catches the attention.

)

lunchlady

11:04PM | Mon, 15 June 2009

Fantastic capture!

)

lyron

12:54AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

Cool shot!!

)

durleybeachbum

1:29AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

When I was little we had the National Geographic mag, and I remember an article all about the pictures on the planes. This bought back lots of memories of all those pictures looked at on Grandmas knee!

)

kenmo

4:44AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

I love WWII nose art...it had a big influence on some of the early markings & decals on hot rods of the late 1940's through to the 1960's...and carries over into today's rat rods... I can see you're enjoying your new Olympus...!!! Excellent photo as always...

)

anahata.c

5:02AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

love the responses...lol, Tara; and to Harry's question, they probably used the blue outline for 2 reasons: One, it helped set the fleshtones from the fuselage, giving a transition from the shiny metal; and two, the lettering uses the same outlining, so it was probably a matter of uniformity & simple design. (You'll get a bill...) This is really a historic period piece, and you caught the vividness quite nicely. I'm amazed it's in such good shape after all these years, even though I'm sure they have curators who restore it. It's really a dead-on fine shot, placing her right in the middle of things, and you caught the sheen and imperfections of the plane's surface too. And I don't know if you intended it, but your second paragraph is filled with innuendo! Nice job, writer! I won't get specific because I know the moderators can come along and whisk things away, but it's nicely done. A fine upload visually and a really a vivid piece of history. Many thanks. More fine plane shots for rosity...

)

bimm3d

5:27AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

oh, yes!!!

vkoontz

5:46AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

Beech 18,C-45 tks for the nose art.

)

Meisiekind

6:06AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

Great image and narrative Bill! Hope you got the sitemail re your question! :)

PD154

6:34AM | Tue, 16 June 2009

Grandma's Knee..LOL do tell us more Andrea :)...Good clear shot Bill, these names and pictures on the aircraft were so diverse, this is a good example!

)