Saturday, February 5, 2022

Fuselage Art, Kurt, And Leopard

Pilots in the World Wars started decorating their planes with so called nose cone art. That's since also happened to the helicopter. Four such examples here are displayed together. Corporal Richard Aucoin painted these onto Canadian Griffon helicopters during the Afghan War.


A mix of equipment: mechanized transport and navy guns.


These barrels and other items at center here constitute one of my favourite artifacts in the Museum. This is Kurt, a weather station from the Second World War. A German U-Boat planted this station at the far northern reaches of Labrador in 1943. It operated for a short time before going offline and was forgotten. Decades later a German scholar going through war records found out about its existence, and the Canadian government was notified. Looking at the components of Kurt, it would look to any passerby like something placed by the government. And that part of Canada is very isolated and sparsely populated, so it's little wonder that it was unnoticed. Now it has its home here.


Two views of Leopard tanks, the contemporary tank used by the Canadian army. I've been in one once.

44 comments:

  1. Talented artists. Beautiful painting. They must be bored with the wars.

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  2. I like the story about "Kurt", the kind of cheeky operation that one can't help but admire.

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  3. I love the nose cone art. Very creative.

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  4. Fascinating about that weather station in Labrador. I doubt it would have ever been found.

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  5. I like the nose cone art. Take care, happy weekend!

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  6. ...I saw a lot of nose art at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

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  7. @Nancy: crews do have long periods of boredom.

    @John: very cheeky.

    @Iris: it's a good one.

    @Sharon: that it is.

    @Marie: unlikely.

    @Eileen: thanks.

    @Tom: no doubt.

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  8. The cone art must help them to forget for a few minutes where they are.

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  9. That weather station was a beautiful find.

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  10. I wish there had been a few tanks in Ottawa over the past week. To block off certain street, and they could sure move big trucks that refused to budge.

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  11. Interesting that they had remote weather stations.

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  12. Love the pilot artwork ~ great photos of museum displays ~

    Wishing you love in all your days,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  13. The cone art is pretty impressive.

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  14. Cada piloto elegiría un motivo, muy representativo para él.

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  15. Oh Popeye, I loved that show when I was a kid.

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  16. I do like the cone art.

    All the best Jan

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  17. The weather station probably isn't such an unusual war artifact.

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  18. Thanks for sharing the fuselage art 🎨 👍

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  19. I like first photo.
    Hope you happy weekend.

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  20. Good that they found the weather station:)

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  21. I saw those weather stations at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, amazing they were not discovered for so long

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  22. Tanks a lot! By the way, your header photo is stunning.

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  23. The art work is rather unique.

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  24. I love the painted art on the copters!

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