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WWII Aviation Gifts: The Nose Art Bomber Crews Painted Themselves

In 1943 a bomber crew would paint a pin-up, a cartoon cat or a row of bombs on the nose of the aircraft they were about to fly across Germany in — by hand, fast, usually by whoever in the squadron could draw. That artwork is what this collection is built from.

Nose art, redrawn and printed on shirts, posters, glassware, and a few things you would not expect to find it on. Every design here is drawn for this shop. None of it is stock art, and none of it is a photograph of a plane with a caption under it.

Below is the full aviation collection — more than 50 designs, from B-17 nose art to a set of golf balls. Everything is printed in the United States when you order it.

Who it’s for

What nose art actually is

Between 1941 and 1945, crews painted the noses of their aircraft — pin-ups, cartoon animals, cards, bombs, names borrowed from songs and girlfriends. It was against regulations and almost universally tolerated, because a bomber with a name on it was a thing you came back to rather than a serial number you were assigned.

The style is specific, and it is why the artwork still reads well eighty years later: hand-lettered, high-contrast, and unembarrassed. Most of the designs in this collection are redrawn in that idiom rather than traced from photographs.

If you want the long version before you buy, how to read WWII nose art explains what the bombs, the symbols and the pin-ups were actually recording.

Choosing between them

Shirts are most of the collection — a little over half of it. They run standard US unisex sizing, so size as you would for any tee. If you are buying for someone else and guessing, size up rather than down; these are printed on demand, which means sizing is the one thing that cannot be exchanged.

Posters and prints suit the designs with more going on — the Tail Gunner pin-up, the bomber nose art sets. They are the better choice if the person already has more shirts than drawer.

The odd ones are often the best gift. Pint glasses and a shot glass, can coolers, a golf towel, three different sets of golf balls, a plush blanket, a tote, a water bottle, a mouse pad, a phone case. These land well precisely because nobody expects WWII nose art on them, and they sidestep the sizing problem entirely.

Questions worth answering before you order

More on the aircraft and the artwork