Will nose art be really the thing of the past? What is nose art? Nose art is a painting on an aircraft and is usually located near the nose section of the fuselage. This is a form of aircraft graffiti. Nose art is a military tradition that begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, then evolved to express the individuality of each miltary unit as a kind of psychological protection against the stresses of war and the probability of death. Nose art was often conceived and produced by the aircraft ground crew.
Ever since men went to war in airplanes, they have felt the need to decorate their craft with unofficial and personal markings. The practice of aircraft graffiti originated with Italian and German pilots in Worl War I. Nose art appearing during world war II was considered by many obervers to be the golden age of the genre. Air crews decorated their planes with pictures of pinups and pretty girls, typically modelled after artists like Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargo, and George Petty. I don't know why the air crew wanted women on airplanes in the first place. Maybe the young men just liked looking at pictures of pinups. It could have been that simple! What I do know, is that when an aircraft mechanic or a pilot refers to an aircraft, he refers to it as a "she" or a "her". The airplane is female, has been female, and will always be female. I don't mind that at all. I'm female and a licensed aircraft mechanic to boot. I have always liked that airplanes are female. Besides, we need more females in aviation! There's not too many girl mechs in the aviation industry. When working on an airplanes, I never felt alone because I was working along-side a fellow female - the aircraft.
Due to changes in military policies and changing attitudes toward the representation of women, the amount of nose art had declined after the Korean War and has declined to nearly nothing now as far as painting pretty girls on the nose section of the airplane. When one goes to an airshow, one does not see sexy pinup nose art on modern day aircrafts. Why not? Why kill tradition or custom? Everyone survived the sexy nose art during World War I and World War II. Why not still have this art for our modern day military jets? I felt pride when I saw pretty nose art on airplanes. Why not? I am proud to be a female, and proud to be sexy. I wish that I could be nose art on a modern day military jet. I would pose in a heart-beat! She would be called "Latina Heat".
What happened to our attitudes? When did this change? Why did it change? Aren't women proud to be women and proud to be sexy and beautiful? Will nose art be a thing of the past or can it be preserved and saved in today's armed forces?
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