Dick Bong

[Forgotten Field]

it's all a sad ending to someone who clearly loved to fly

I'm not advocating dying while flying, but he was doing what he loved when he died, unfortunately showing us amateurs that we need to use checklists...

[PinecastleAAF]

Marge is without a doubt the most realistic nose art I've ever seen. I still can't imagine how the artist got it to look so much like the photo. He must have been a really good artist.

As for the P-80 exploding in flight is that accurate? I have read somewhere he jetisoned the canopy and stood up in his seat and pulled the ripcord hoping it would inflate and suck him out. I thought the a/c exploded on ground contact.

[Matt Gunsch]

Marge is without a doubt the most realistic nose art I've ever seen. I still can't imagine how the artist got it to look so much like the photo. He must have been a really good artist.

The reason it looks like a photo is because it is a photo. He had it blown up and then stuck on the side of the plane then painted over with a clear coat to seal it in place.

[Jack Cook]

It is a photo.
I was enlarged by the 9th FS photo shop from the wallet photo he carried.
It was glued to the gun door then shalacked (sp). It eventally came off in flight.
The only paint involved was he name.

[warbird1]

As for the P-80 exploding in flight is that accurate? I have read somewhere he jetisoned the canopy and stood up in his seat and pulled the ripcord hoping it would inflate and suck him out. I thought the a/c exploded on ground contact.

Did his P-80 have an ejection seat? Obviously he would have been too low to use it, but I'm just curious if those early P-80's had ejection seats, or was that not installed until later on in production. Anybody know the history of ejection seats installed in the P-80 and T-33 series?

[Jack Cook]

I thought the a/c exploded on ground contact.

that's correct

[PinecastleAAF]

Cool. I was wondering how the artist got the highlight affect around her hair. Thanks!

[Jack Cook]

Did his P-80 have an ejection seat?

no

[warbird1]

Did his P-80 have an ejection seat?

no

When did they start installing ejection seats on the P-80?

[retroaviation]

I thought the a/c exploded on ground contact.

that's correct

Okay, well that just goes to show that eye witnesses are indeed not the best source. I was just going by what the newspaper article said. I should've known better.

Gary

[mustangdriver]

Cool. I was wondering how the artist got the highlight affect around her hair. Thanks!

It was a black and white photo that an artist then added color touched too according to the EAA Museum

[warbird1]

Cool. I was wondering how the artist got the highlight affect around her hair. Thanks!

It was a black and white photo that an artist then added color touched too according to the EAA Museum

That makes sense. It's really incredible how much photo retouching (called photoshopping nowadays) was done to photos back during W.W.II. I have several original W.W.II era Associated Press photographs which were used for printing in the San Francisco Chronicle back then. I have both the original photograph as well as a cut out of the article that used the photo from the paper. On the original photo, you can clearly see where the photo editors "marked up" the photo to give it more contrast and definition. It looks like they used some kind of grey or dark-colored grease pencil to make the photo more "printable". The same equivalent function for those of you familiar with photoshop would be the "sharpen" tool.

[Jack Cook]

It was a black and white photo that an artist then added color touched too according to the EAA Museum

It's called hand tinting. My dad used to do alot of it back in the 70s.

[mustangdriver]

It was a pretty cool effect. I wonder how hard that is to do. Very cool looking.

[Jack Cook]

Here's one my dad did with a original AVG photo.