Today’s Poster is a classic Shell oil item. The Smithsonian’s catalogue reads: “‘FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE LUBRICATION BY SHELL.’ Framed multi-color print advertising for Shell lubricant. Illustrated with three Bristol Bombays flying over the English countryside.” Artist Karl Felkel (Austrian, 1896–1973). James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. Source, National Air and Space Museum here.
Month: November 2019
It’s 5 miles Down!
Today a cover for the Airboy pulp magazine. Airships, busty villains, personal escape jets and a five mile drop into the ocean! What more could one want? Well obviously the garish colours, and to read the rest of what happens next. You’re in luck. Image – and the rest of the comic here. James Kightly,…
Pardo’s Push
Today we have a great example where an original commercial painting fulfils an important illustrative role of an event – not otherwise captured in the full colour movie and photo age of 1967. The Vietnam War. It required artist Ken Dallison in Esquire to bring the event to us in pictorial form. The story is…
Toys of Yesteryear
Today a photo of a British toy shop window – A caption gives it as ‘Henley, UK, 1960, by Stuart James’. It’s an interesting mix that social historians could, I’m sure, make a lot of. Aircraft aren’t particularly prominent, but they’re there. Right in the middle, is model box of a de Havilland DH 106…
Sea Clippers, Land Clippers
Today’s poster, by artist Kenneth Thompson, is a ‘Pan American’ (later more familiar as ‘Pan Am’) poster advertising the earlier iteration of their ‘Clipper’ airliners. In the American vernacular ‘ship’ for an aircraft was regularly used, adding another layer to the ‘clipper ship’ call-back to earlier times. Then, a lot of promotion assumed marine aircraft…
See Clearly
Today’s poster and photograph seems clear enough wartime recruitment propaganda, but there’s a bit more to them than meets the eye. Here a woman factory worker is fitting a mount to a clear acrylic dome structure. It’s a nose cone for an American bomber, in this case a Douglas built Boeing B-17F and her head…
Biff! Pow!
Today a cover from a classic American pulp magazine ‘Airboy Comics’. There’s something refreshingly straightforward in their garish colours, slightly random approach to real aircraft, the clear necessity of having some strange (and special) aircraft for the hero, and then, best of all, the special ‘having a fight on the wing of the airplane in…
Japanese Wing
Today’s Poster is a very strong graphic image from Japan. As yet untranslated [but see below], the text is a mystery to me, but the message of Japanese imperial dominance of the air is clear. An echo of the background, chosen for the match, in the Japanese ‘Hinomaru’ or rising sun wing marking. The central…
Travolta’s Smallest Airliner?
The one and only John Travolta (just arrived in Australia as I write) well known as a film star, sometimes known as a pilot, and an owner of several large aircraft, including his own Qantas colours bedecked Boeing 707 – yes, a real, full-size airliner. This is due to be donated to the Historic Aircraft…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 