As you walk along the flight lines at Air shows and other fly–ins,  and particularly the Warbird areas, you’ll see a lot of airplanes decorated with unique artwork, much of it concerning female figures. These decorations have a long history.  Pilots have been decorating military airplanes at least since World War I and possibly earlier.

"Nose Art" really gained public recognition during World War II , when photographs of imaginatively decorated fighters and bombers graced the pages of Life and other popular magazines, not to mention just about every newspaper in The United States.

Much of it, like Gen. Chuck Yeager’s well-known "Glamorous Glenn III" referred to sweethearts or wives.  Another large group expressed the aggressive character of military airplanes and crews. Some had less tasteful connotations. Commanding officers were known to order removal of a few which, in a that nobler era, were regarded as offensive. There was a time following World War II when our military banned nose art as inappropriate and unprofessional . It made a come back during the Vietnam conflict, but seldom is seen on contemporary military planes.

There is plenty of nose art to see at air shows, and not all of it will be on Warbirds. Not all of it will even be found on airplane noses. Vertical fins have their share of decoration, as does fuselage sides.

During the golden age of aviation, the 1920s and’30s, airplanes were popular as flying billboards, bringing products to the attention of an air-struck public.