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:…
Tag: Racing
Stork on a Plate
When the Douglas DC-2 of KLM, PH-AJU, named ‘Uiver’, (Stork) came second in the 1934 England – Australia air race, the Dutch, understandably, went wild over the achievement. It was, by any measure an extraordinary achievement, as I detail here on the ABC website. The result of the Netherlands-wide enthusiasm was a extensive array of…
Sparky Card
Something rather different today, our first ‘paper aeroplane’ on the blog. Here’s the cover, of the 1930s KLG Sparkplugs promotional toy, which features the Supermarine Schneider trophy racer at top right and Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird land speed record car below – justifying the claim: ‘The fastest plug in the world’. Below is the folded-out…
It’s the Wrong Stripes!
Aircraft markings seem to be rather a challenge to understand at times, and are easily misinterpreted. They are a design and aesthetic choice, as well as being a political recognition and heraldry concept as well. This ‘executive desktop model’ made from mahogany will set you back around US $300 on eBay. It’s not bad, but…
Zurich Meet
Today’s Poster. Everybody’s flying the same kind of aircraft? While a simple looking design, note the different colour mixes on the prop blade roots on each of the nearest three aircraft. Hope it was a good meet! From the excellent 1925 to 1935 blog of images here. Image details: 1937 – J.C. Müller, Zürich 90…
RENO 80
A more modern poster than usual today, here from the Reno National Championship Air Races, known as ‘the fastest motorsport’ above earth. Featuring here a set of World War Two era North American P-51 Mustangs reconfigured as racers, both in the eighties and now, stalwarts of that race scene. The vibrant red and yellow colour…
Modern ‘Colour’
Here’s a few pages from a book from 1931*, when roundels were RED white and blue, thanks to the hand tinting colour process used. We take full colour printing for granted these days, but it wasn’t that long ago it was a big deal to have any colour at all – this book has only…
Sleek Caudron & Renault
When forced to support an aircraft maker, your car manufacturer has every justification in advertising their car in association – including using the pilot of both, here Raymond Delmotte. The Caudron C.461 is seen here with the Renault cabriolet, and both shows the fashions of extreme streamlining are as much fashion as they are pure…
Which Woman’s Wings?
Women’s History Month is nearly at an end. One oddity, here it looks like a great film, lots of American aircraft*. Except it’s not. The US film poster for the British film ‘They Flew Alone’ released in the US as ‘Wings and the Woman’, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring his wife Anna Neagle. It’s…
Credible Comet?
These ‘trench art’ ashtrays are relatively common in junk shops and antique shops. This is to a degree because most of them are modern made, and vary enormously between the very convincing, and the dubious rubbish. This represents the pre-war de Havilland DH 88 Comet racer, reasonably convincingly though the casting as usual lacks credibility…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 