Navy Noseart

Willy

Willy

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Staff member
I've been discussing with some folks that apparent lack of noseart on US Navy aircraft. From what I understand this is due to two reasons. The Navy brass frown on it and most Navy aircraft aren't assigned regular pilots.

I did find a pic of a PB4Y Privateer that had nose art on it though.
 
IIRC the policy during WWII was not to assign a specific aircraft to an aircrew.
It makes sense on a crowded carrier deck, less so on land or water based aircraft.
One that I remember well is David McCampbell's 'Mimsi III', publicity shots taken used temporary kill marks and insignia which were removed later.
I think mention was made of CAG aircraft being personally assigned, but that was in the latter years.
:USA-flag:
 
I know there was some on early navy aircraft but after Midway it was gone tell late 1944.
 
Willy,

Naval Aviation nose art may have been sparse, but the tail art of USN aircraft (especially in the 70s) was awesome!

NC
 
NC, I remember in the mid 70s on the Lexington, I stood duty boat engineer watches in case we had to drop the motor whale boat in an emergency. As such I had to remain near the boat which meant I spent a lot of time in Hanger Bay 3. We usually carried a few aircraft from squadrons whose carrier was in a shipyard and needed to requal pilots for carrier landings. I got to see a lot of squadron markings on the tails and they sure were colorful.
 
Willy said:
NC, I remember in the mid 70s on the Lexington, I stood duty boat engineer watches in case we had to drop the motor whale boat in an emergency. As such I had to remain near the boat which meant I spent a lot of time in Hanger Bay 3. We usually carried a few aircraft from squadrons whose carrier was in a shipyard and needed to requal pilots for carrier landings. I got to see a lot of squadron markings on the tails and they sure were colorful.
Click to expand...

Yep, when the Navy changed over to the "Tactical Gray" paint scheme, all the colorful tail markings pretty much disappeared. I think the CAG aircraft tail can be colorful, but nothing like the striking colors of the 70s....
 
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