AviationGraphic.com’s Profile Art for the Nellis AFB Airshow.
By Tom Demerly of TACAIRNET.com
This upcoming November 12th and 13th Nellis Air Force Base Air Show outside Las Vegas, Nevada will host the final flight demonstration of the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II, a multi-mission tactical aircraft that has served the U.S. Air Force, Marines, and Navy for 58 years. The Nellis AFB F-4 Phantom flight display will be the last time the U.S. Air Force flies the F-4 Phantom II in a demonstration, closing out 58 years of incredible history for the aircraft many people in my generation grew up with.
Aviation artist Mads Bangso of Copenhagen, Denmark has created several beautiful profile prints for AviationGraphic.com to commemorate the final flight of the Phantom, the “Phantom Pharewell” series. Two weeks ago I contacted AviationGraphic.com for several of these prints in two versions to bring to Nellis AFB with me for autographing by the last operational USAF F-4 Phantom pilots in history.
AviationGraphic.com shipped my order in flat packaging, not rolled. That makes it easy to handle the prints for framing and display. They also arrive in perfect condition.
I’ve been a collector of aircraft profile prints for years, with some of my collection dating back to the era before the images were computer renderings. These early images were sometimes paintings reproduced for squadron rooms at air force bases around the world. They were extremely difficult to obtain outside the military flying community.
Today advancements in printing and illustration technology along with international distribution and the ability of artists to collaborate on projects around the world more easily have made aircraft profile prints not only easier to obtain, but also better quality and more accurate.
AviationGraphic.com has fully 289 McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II prints available, representing every country that has operated the F-4 across all of its versions. It is likely the largest collection of F-4 Phantom prints anywhere in the world.
Researcher, aviation artist and expert Ugo Crisponi returned my inquiry to AviationGraphic.com and dispatched a collection of F-4 prints for the Phinal Phantom Phlight at Nellis. I received the F-4 prints, along with some other remarkable prints showcasing unique aircraft that will be at Nellis AFB, a week later via air from Italy.
Commemorating the career of (then) Col. Robin Olds and Operation Bolo, this print features his portrait along with his F-4C.
The detail in AviationGraphic.com prints is impressive, especially on aircraft with panel lines, weathering, riveting and unusual stenciling. Color rendering is also rich and accurate. Research for the images comes for both photos and from visits to many of the subject aircraft in person so artists can experience coloration, proportion and exact look of an aircraft before it is rendered. This approach provides optimal accuracy for AviationGraphic.com’s over 70 contributing artists, including Ugo Crisponi and Mads Bangso.
This close-up gives some hint of the detail, color rendering and weathering effects that make these prints so accurate.
Along with the final flight of the U.S. Air Force F-4’s, being flown in the QF-4E versions, many other unique aircraft available no where else in the world will be at the Nellis AFB Airshow. Nellis is the home of the Air Force’s “Red Flag” combat simulation exercise, a full scale aerial combat training exercise that simulates the opening few days of an air war between countries with sophisticated air forces. The simulated combat unfolds over nearly the entire western U.S.
Since it is the annual host of the Red Flag exercise Nellis AFB is also the home of the elite 64th Aggressor Squadron, a unique Air Force unit that flies as “red force” enemy aircraft against U.S. and allied pilots training to defeat a sophisticated adversary. Artist and aviation expert Ugo Crisponi has produced some striking prints of the unique and colorful 64th Aggressor aircraft in their unusual livery.
Nellis will also host some unique Remotely Piloted Vehicle displays from the nearby Creech AFB where RPV combat missions are flown all over the world. I ordered a print of a General Atomics RQ-4 Reaper drone to take to Nellis also to see if I could get a flight crew to sign it.
Since I was ordering from AviationGraphic.com I wanted to add some unique prints of other aircraft you don’t find prints of from any other source. Two of these are the ill-fated F-104N Starfighter flown by test pilot Joe Walker during the tragic mid-air collision with an XB-70 Valkyrie in June, 1966 and a relatively new print of the elite Jordanian Special Operations Command UH-60L Blackhawk helicopter used at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) outside Amman, Jordan.
There are a number of excellent aviation profile print publishers now including the original Squadron Prints, Aircraft Profile Prints and even smaller, one man art houses like Ryan Dorling Military Litho Prints. Each one of these produce beautiful art but AviationGraphic.com has the largest variety of subjects, especially international, and the largest number of artists of any of the publishing houses. I’m thrilled to bring these prints to Nellis AFB with me in November for aircrews to autograph.
tomdemerly 