It’s exactly the middle of the year, so today we have one of the items that inspired the idea for the blog. There’s several stories, so settle in… “Well, Back To The Old Drawing Board” by Peter Arno, first published in the March 1, 1941 issue of New Yorker magazine. It’s a remarkable cartoon, and…
Canada Air
Two posters for Canada day today, centred on Canada’s contribution to World War Two’s air war – in men and machines. Above is an aircrew group being briefed ready to board their Douglas Boston medium bomber. The point, of course, is to demonstrate there are more flying jobs in the air force than the pilot….
Toil & 2
Today’s photograph. I particularly like Twenties and Thirties artistically composed photographs featuring aircraft in a semi abstract composition, such as the Messerschmitt photograph on 9 April. Here we have an image entitled ‘Rest after toil.’, and the details and reflections make it almost into a person on a mountain summit image. The reality is the…
Air France World 2
Today’s Poster follows yesterday’s. Designed by Lucien Boucher, it’s a 1949 poster advertising the ‘Orient – Extreme Orient’ destination with a orientalist design theme. A magnificent bird faces a Chinese style pagoda, with an Indian building behind it, all located over a map extending from India to China and the Oriental nations in between. Top…
It’s an Air France World
Today’s Poster. When an airline ‘owned’ the world. Today we are used to a diversity of airlines and cheaper carriers, so it’s easy to forget where each nation basically had one, national flag carrier. Here it’s Air France, by Lucien Boucher. As you’d expect, this brings not just their routes (almost an afterthought) but their…
Dutch Diana
A fascinating story here. Decorative art on aircraft (usually called ‘nose art’, though for obvious reasons not quite appropriate here) is nothing unusual, but the story behind this, current scheme is, I think, unique. Plenty of art has been copied, or created for a unit by all sorts of people from unit personnel to Disney…
Paper Tigers
Today’s Poster is often listed online as ‘Defend Singapore’. It’s apparently a British Empire issued poster, with Chinese text (and no English in the main message). According to the details on the bottom margin, it was designed and printed in Singapore. In the 1930s, Singapore, a British possession, part of the Straits Settlement, had a…
Alabama Bomber
Today’s Poster is a classic ‘shadow of the bomber’, over a very specific audience, that of the citizens of Alabama, shown by the state’s unique geographic shape. Catalogued in the Library of Congress as a War Projects Administration War Services poster, created between 1941 and 1943, it’s given as by ‘Welch’, but with no other…
But wait! Balloon Races!
Today’s Poster. A classic interwar post art deco design in 1933, featuring an eagle, Gee Bee and allied racers – and a balloon race! Well there y’go. James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. From the Smithsonian’s online catalogue here. Sponsor: Chicago Daily News, Other: National Aeronautic Association. Medium: Poster, Advertising, Air Shows and Races. Dimensions:…
Tell on Paratroopers
Today we have an unusual poster in that it is exhorting children specifically to be alert for enemy action. The translation from the Russian has been given either as ‘Children, protect the Motherland! Spy on your enemies and report to your elders!’ or ‘Watch out for enemies, report them to adults.’ Either way, such an…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 