Nose art is the practice of decorating the front of aircraft for either personal or practical reasons. At its start, nose art acted as a way to differentiate friendly units from the enemy, later however it became an outlet for aviators to express themselves. Nose art was often little more than a form of entertainment to help keep morale high-as a result the art could at times be vulgar or include nudity.
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Here soldiers of the 240th Assult Helicopter Company are posing with a Bell UH-1C Iroquois helicopter. On the front, the helicopter bears the unit’s”Mad Dog” symbol and slogan “Death on Call”-taken 1970-71.
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Here a Soldier is seen posing with his helicopter art depicting a scandalously dressed woman named “Honey Wells”
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Bell AH-1G Cobra helicopter of the 174th Assault Helicopter Company, bearing the shark-mouth nose art of the unit. The shark-mouth design is based on the nose art for the Flying Tigers of the Second World War.
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A 5-picture collage of aircraft art from 4 helicopter noses and 1 transmission. The transmission art in the center reads “This transmission flew 120 missiles on Viet Cong territory 920 v/c we killed.”
To the left is a brief educational video on the use of nose art on both planes and helicopters during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. The series also contains episodes on nose art during the Second World War as well.
