This stared out to be an illustration of a 50th Fighter Group P-47D Thunderbolt called "Nancy", but the nose art just wasn't working out the way I had hoped. After messing around with it way too long and not getting the desired look, I decided to scrap the "Nancy" nose art and create my own. I liked the name, but decided to go in a different direction with it and illustrate a nurse. Hooking up with a nurse was every fighter pilots fantasy, so I went with this theme.

My Nose Art illustration is based on a rough hand drawn pencil sketch that I redrew in Illustrator and then pasted into the illustration of the P-47 that I had already started.

Now for a little history... the 50th Fighter Group was part of the 9th Air Force. Before D-Day they were stationed at a temporary air strip built on a country estate in the west of England in Lymington, at Pylewell House. The airfield was situated between Pylewell House, Newtown House and Snook Farm, the main run way actually ran right past the front door of Pylewell House. Officers were even billeted at Pylewell House.
Throughout the Normandy Invasion, the 50th Fighter Group provided fighter cover for the first waves of landing forces on the beachheads, flying over 1000 sorties from Lymington, they attacked everything from bunkers, gun emplacements, supply dumps, trains, railroad sidings, troop concentrations, radar stations and road transport... The 9th Air Force engineers even built a temporary emergency air strip on Utah Beach! As the Allied troops advanced deeper into France after D-Day, fighter groups of the 9th Air Force were moved lock stock and barrel from their bases in England to newly captured bases throughout France. The 50th moved at least 4 times as Allied forces pushed forward. Eventually the 50th was to end up at Toul-Ochey near Nancy, France. From their new base they helped stop the German advance at Saar-Hardt in January of 1945 and took part in the offensive that destroyed the Colmar bridgehead in January and February, as well as providing close ground support for the offensive that broke the Siegfried Line that eventually led to Allied forces entering into Germany in March and April, 1945. The 50th was a tactical fighter group and worked closely with troops on the ground. General George S. Patton called the 9th Air Force his flying artillery. Working directly with Air Force P-47 pilots who were assigned to Army units on the ground, they operated as foreward air controlers and were able to direct pin-point tactical air strikes to 9th Air Force P-47 pilots in the sky. 9th Air Force fighters would also freelance as they flew to and from missions, they would strafe and bomb targets of opportunity along the way. Nothing was safe from their attacks. The P-47 Thunderbolt was well suited for this sort of activity. It could carry tons of bombs, rockets and with eight 50 cal. Browning machine guns, four in each wing, it could really really pack a punch. The P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and most successful fighter aircraft of WWII. Big, fast and powerful, the pilots and ground crews affectionately called them "Jugs".

Adobe Illustrator 8.0, Apple G3 iMac, OS 9.2.