The folks back home
needed any good news they could get and stories of the “shark-toothed faces” of
the P-40s and the thrilling air victories over China caught the American imagination.
In fact, it was good news for recruiting, as more young men joined the American
war effort, in hopes of grabbing some of the heroism of those pilots in those
fanciful machines.
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The
distinctive paint scheme of the P-40s was nothing new to airplane design and decoration.
In fact, before the Americans even joined the War, the German Air Force (known
as the Luftwaffe) had Messerschmitt BF-110s sporting a shark mouth similar to
that of the Flying Tigers Nose Art and German biplanes flown during World War I
often included a mouth or skull face painted near the propeller.
.
Nose
Art may have evolved from other customary Air Force practices, such as the
numbers, lettering, and insignia on the tail or torso used to identify fighters
and bombers by squadrons. . American Air Corps’ fighters of WWI used separate
designs for different squadrons. For example, Eddie Rickenbacker’s 94th
Aero Squadron was known as the “Hat in the Ring” gang because of the insignia
they sported on their biplanes.
.
Normally, these designs were against Army regulations, but
officers often looked the other way as enlisted men painted comical or
thought-provoking designs on the planes. Even the Disney Company pitched in, designing
a “Flying Tiger Logo” that originally featured a Bengal tiger leaping through a
V (the “V” was for Victory). It became the official emblem of the Fighter
Squadron, appearing in many forms.
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