Nose Art

Today's entry isn't so much of a commentary as it is an annotated photo essay. In days of yore, particularly during WWII, it was common for aircrews to adorn the nose of their aircraft with pictures and/or names. Here are a couple of examples:

http://www.taphilo.com/Photo/Pictures/b17/B-17G-909-Nose-Art.jpg
http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/Aircraft/B17 nose art.jpg

Today's military is less permissive of such artistic displays, as many were perhaps less than politically correct. The basic concept, however, does still survive and can occasionally be seen on commercial aircraft, usually to commemorate a special event or sponsorship. I've been able to catch a few from the tower:

This B757 proclaims that Delta is the official airline of the Grammy awards.

This Virgin Atlantic B747 is dubbed "Cosmic Girl".
This example is more in keeping with some of the original nose art seen in WW2.


This brand-new B777 showed up at LAX yesterday on its first revenue flight.
The left side of the nose proclaims this to be "The Delta Spirit".


To wrap this up, a variation on the theme. This Alaska B737 sports a lei on the tail to commemorate the airline's new service to Hawaii.

That's it for now -
CV