Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

[Jack McFall]

I have been lucky enough to be attending Reno since '92.

I was wondering if anyone might have some closeups of noseart (any race class) they could share from any of the racers from pre-'92.

If you have a CD/DVD of noseart, please let me know a price.

Thanks for any help.

Jack

Any warbird noseart would be great...........does not have to be a race aircraft.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

So as far as racers with nose art, this is an off-the-top of my head list, and it doesn’t include ‘warbird’ racers who have military-style nose art as far as the paint job (i.e. Ridge Runner III, or any of the 4th FG Mustangs like Boomer, Section Eight, Shangri-La, or the bombers like Cotton Jenny, Pacific Princess, Puss & Boots, etc.) I’m sure I’ve left out a couple, but these are the major ones between 1964 and 1991.

Darryl Greenamyer’s F8F (1964) had the Goldwater Elephant on the nose.

Clay Lacy’s P-51 (1964-66) had a Mustang done up as a Conistoga “Reno or Bust” wagon on the tail. From 1968-72 it had Snoopy on the tail.

Ben Hall’s P-51 Seattle Miss (1964-66)/Esther’s Mink (1966) had the Seattle Space Needle with two planes making a pylon turn around it on the fuselage.

Gene Akers’ F4U-4 Lancer Two (1968-69) had a red/gold knight’s helmet in a shield on the nose.

Burns Byram’s P-51 (1969-72) had the Playboy bunny inside a circle on the tail.

Clay Lacy/Allen Paulson’s DC-7B Super Snoopy (1970-71) had a Snoopy in a Superman cape on the tail.

Len Tanner’s P-51 Pigeon Chaser (1971, 1973) had a cartoon pigeon on the lower nose cowl.

Larry Haven’s P-63 Crazyhorse (1971) had a white and pink polkadotted horse (the Crazy Horse Campground logo) on the nose.

Ken Burnstine’s P-51 Miss Foxy Lady had a brunette nude on the fuselage of the black version (1974), and a blonde nude on the white version (1975).

Jack Sandberg’s P-63 Tipsy Miss (1974-76) had the Leroy Nieman/Playboy “Femlin” on the nose.

Charlie Beck/Jim Modes’ P-51 Candy Man (1974) had a cartoon of Sammy Davis Jr. (the Candy Man) on the fuselage.

Darryl Greenamyer’s F8F American Jet Special (1975) had a large eagle motif on the forward fuselage/engine cowling incorporated into the paint scheme. Not sure it constituted nose art, but looked cool.

Gary Levitz/Don Whittington’s P-51 Precious Metal (1975-83) had a prospector on the lower engine cowling.

Jimmy Leeward’s P-51 Miss Florida (1975) had an alligator on the lower engine cowl with the legend ‘Bearcats are Gator Bait’.

Cliff Cummins’ P-51 Miss Candace had Snoopy on his Sopwith Camel/Doghouse on the fuselage. In 1977 it had a Mustang tail with the ‘candy stripes’. In 1978 the Mustang tail was removed.

Gary Levitz’s P-38 Double Trouble (1977) had the ‘Forget, Hell’ Confederate Rebel on the nose.

Clay Klabo’s P-51 Fat Cat (1978-83) had Tom Cat (from Tom & Jerry) smoking a cigar on the lower nose cowl.

Wally McDonnell’s A-26 Mojave Kid (1979) had a cartoon of Wally flying an A-26 dragging a big lead weight on a rope.

Wiley Sanders’ P-51 Jeannie (1979-82) had the Snoopy from Miss Candace painted on the racing wingtips.

Mike Smith’s P-63 What Price Speed? (1979) had an Allison motor exploding on the nose.

Jack Sandberg’s P-51 Tipsy Too (1982-83) had the old Doubleknit & Doon Mustang/dragster cartoon on the lower engine cowl, as well as a smaller Playboy "Femlin" next to the name.

Lyle Shelton’s F8F Rare Bear (1983-85) had a bear crushing a Mustang in it’s paw on the tail (which was a direct result of a comment John Crocker had made to Lyle about his chances of beating him).

Alan Preston’s P-51 Stiletto (1984-85) had a nude genie coming out of a bottle that said “Spirit of Jeannie” on the aft fuselage.

Wiley Sanders’ P-51 Jeannie Too (1985-90) had a similar genie on the upper engine cowl just behind the name.

Wiley Sanders’ P-51 Coyote/Georgia Mae (1985) had the Snoopy wingtips off of the old Jeannie.

Bill Speers’ P-51 Pegasus (1987-94) had a white winged-horse on the lower nose cowl.

ADDENDUM:

I went back and fact-checked and missed a few from the 1964-91 period:

Stan Hoke's P-51 Penney's Pixi (1964) had a blonde pixie in blue on the nose.

Scott Smith's P-51 Ge Ge II (1978-80) had a prancing horse on the tail.

Don Davis' P-51 Habu (1982-84) kept the Ge Ge II pony on the tail, but added a coiled Habu snake on the clipped wingtips.

Don Davis' FG-1D Warthog (1982-85) had a warthog on the nose.

Wiley Sanders' P-51 Jeannie Too (see above) had a boxing-glove-clad Kangaroo on the left gear door for a couple years.

Bill Woods Sea Fury Wanna Play II (ex-Blind Man's Bluff/Critical Mass) had his old squadron logo on the nose next to the name.

[W J Pearce]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

Freaking awesome!

[Randy Haskin]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

...and that was "just off the top of [your] head"?

You have a sickness, Brad. hehe

[Big_Jim]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

...and that was "just off the top of [your] head"?

You have a sickness, Brad. hehe

Well yeah. Unfortunately, as you and I have talked before, the older I get the more I suffer from what Ralph used to refer to as 'brain fade', and things that used to be on the tip of my tongue are complete blanks lately...and that's frustrating for me. So Jack's post was a nice mental challenge for me to take a blank piece of paper and go down year by year and try to remember.

I am sure I have photos of all the planes/artwork in question that Jack was looking for, and would love to post them on here...but even though they are a part of my overall 'collection', most of them are not mine and many I couldn't even tell you who took them.

Wayne, thoughts as to how I could post these photos without stepping on anyone's toes?

[Big_Jim]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

As a follow-up to the ‘racer’ nose art, the following are ‘warbirds’ that raced at Reno between 1964-91 that had nose art as part of their paint scheme.

Gerry Miles P-51 Sunshine (1981), his later P-51 Tally Ho II (1989), Alan Preston’s F4U-5 Old Deadeye (1985), and Gary Meermans’ FG-1D Skyboss (1988) all had Yosemite Sam on the airplane.

Max Hoffman’s P-51 Boomer (1978-79), Doug Driscoll’s P-51 Section Eight (1979-81), and Pete Regina’s P-51B Shangri-La (1982) all had the 4th Fighter Group’s “boxing chicken” artwork on the plane.

Larry Blumer’s P-38 Scrapiorn IV (1971) had a nude with ‘Censored” covering it on the nose.

Ed Messick’s P-51 Minuteman (1977) had a Revolutionary War soldier on the forward fuselage.

Dwight Reimer’s A-26 Cotton Jenny (1978-80) had a stocking-clad girl bending over on the nose.

Dan Martin’s P-51 Ridge Runner III (1978-82) had a razorback on the nose.

Don Davidson’s P-51 Double Trouble/Double Trouble II (1983-85) had a girl and a witch on the nose.

Gerry Miles P-51 Tally Ho (1984-85) had an armadillo outline (I think) inside a star on the fuselage.

Tony Ritzman’s B-25 Pacific Princess (1985, 86, 88) had a nude riding a bomb on the nose.

Don Davis’ A-26 Puss & Boots (1985) had a nude in gold cowboy boots on the nose.

Robert Converse’s P-51 Huntress III (1989-97) had a female warrior and black panther on the nose (same name and nose-art that his mother’s A-26 racer had back at Cleveland in the 40’s.

[Propellerhead]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

...and that was "just off the top of [your] head"?

You have a sickness, Brad. hehe

" 'Course it's 10 minutes to Wapner."

[Big_Jim]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

" 'Course it's 10 minutes to Wapner."

As Hacker will attest to, you're a lot closer to the truth than you think, Phred.

[Skyracer]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

T6 #9 - Lickety Split had "tail art".

[Pylon Valhalan']

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

Big_Jim You are the man!

[Leo]

Re: Pre-1992 Air Racers NOSE ART

Just plane creepy Big Jim.
Levitz had sharks mouths on the cowlings and a rebel soldier crying "Forgrt, Hell" on the booms at one time, early 70's? No I do not have your file cabinet memory.