Tiki Nose Art

I am interesred in seeing pics of Tiki themed WWII kinda era nose art. I have seen the Don the Beachcomber one on here. Any others people know of? I did a quick search on google, and didn't come up with much.

On 2005-05-11 23:18, Hakalugi wrote:
Winner - Best Dressed Nose:
Krustiki

Is this what you're talking about?

Here is a good site with lots of pics and links
http://www.nose-art.net/index.html

Heres some more links
http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2004/noseart/
http://www.fsu.edu/~ww2/nose-art/noseartindex.html
http://www.aerothentic.com/photos/aircraft_photos/index.html

[ Edited by: rodeotiki on 2005-05-25 12:23 ]

On 2005-05-25 07:28, ookoo lady wrote:

*On 2005-05-11 23:18, Hakalugi wrote:*Winner - Best Dressed Nose:Krustiki

Is this what you're talking about?

No no, something completely different, since I'm sure Hakalugi would never want a naked lady sitting...on...his - oops, never mind...:blush:

Thanks for the links - I have been to a few of these alreadt. Having trouble finding tiki ones though.

On 2005-05-25 19:15, hewey wrote:
Thanks for the links - I have been to a few of these already. Having trouble finding tiki ones though.

That's because most fighter plane nose art is from the pre-Tiki era (BOT p.46). Did they do any of that in the Korean war? Would be nice to find one on a Le Sabre jet, since I drive Buick Le Sabre...

I have seen one or two uniform patches with Tiki imagery, from later years, probably from units stationed in Hawaii.

Here is one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43990177@N07/4407923618/

GK

Here's one from a B-24 Liberator that was stationed in PNG in WWII:

The glass beside the falling bomb has a straw sticking out of it and a skull in the bottom of it - sorry about the print quality - the original was on newsprint and that was the best pic I could get.

Source: Invasion of Papua and New Guinea - 100 Historical Photographs, compiled by Mike Coutts.

CN

There is also a USAF Boeing B-29 Superfortress during the Korean War which had a lovely female in grass skirt and flower lei, "South Sea Sinner."

[ Edited by: Haole Jim 2013-06-04 15:59 ]

wow too cool

Cool thread, here's the South Seas Sinner

Here's a Hollywood account of this South Seas nose art phenomena in the movie THE BAMBOO BLONDE (1946) RKO. Great story too about a fictional pre-tiki WWII / Poly club connection. Engaged but not happy pilot falls in falls in love with torch singer in NYC. Shipped to the South Seas he has his men paint the singer on the nose of his bomber but with a South Seas two piece sarong. If I recall correctly, the nose art becomes famous when a newspaper photographer shoots it and the photo gets widely distributed. The torch singer gets discovered because of the nose art and she and the club owner changes her act and the establishment to a pre-tiki South Seas club with hula dancers and more sarongs.

I have a really nifty book called "For The Boys" about the 'racy pin-ups of World War II'.
There are LOTS of pictures of aircraft nose art...I didn't see any with Tiki on them, but a fair amount of Hula Girls on the nose.
In general, it is a really neat book with lots of GREAT pin-up art- including photos of guys and their planes!!

Love to know more about that book Tiki-Kitty can't find it on the net.

Here is great one, it is Lala from Tikibar TV on a WWII B-25J, photoshopped from Lala's calendar by Hans.

[ Edited by: captnkirk 2013-06-03 11:45 ]

Here is the Don the Beachcomber B-26

Hey Cap'n, where is that B-26 Marauder and what Bomb Group? There were not many Martins in the Pacific.

Thank you.

BTW, the left main tire is low.

You just gotta love the B-26. She had a couple of sayings that went with her. "One a day in Tampa Bay" referred to the high rate of pilots lost during training flights due to the hot rod nature of the aircraft. Another nickname of the plane was "The Baltimore Whore" due to the small wing size it was said she had no visible means of support and they were built in Baltimore. A big thanks to the boys that flew these planes and to the ones that still keep the few left flying today.

199 Fighter Squadron 1947 w P-47 tiki art:

pic from the tikiarchitecture.blogspot

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-06-10 05:07 ]

On 2005-05-29 05:48, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2005-05-25 19:15, hewey wrote:
Thanks for the links - I have been to a few of these already. Having trouble finding tiki ones though.

That's because most fighter plane nose art is from the pre-Tiki era (BOT p.46).

The original tiki squadron was No. 75 Squadron of the RAF, which was equipped by the New Zealand Government and crewed by New Zealanders. In World War II, flying missions over Nazi-occupied Europe from 1940 to 1945, it flew more sorties and suffered more casualties than any other Allied squadron.

Its crest, which dates from February 1943:

"For ever and ever be strong"

The squadron's number, insignia and battle honours were transferred to the Royal New Zealand Air Force by the RAF in 1946.

Here is the post-war RNZAF version of the crest:

NZ bombers in WWII had nose art like this:

This is a tiki-emblazoned Stirling bomber that flew with No. 15 Squadron RAF, named "Te Kooti" after a famous 19th-century warrior chief. It was shot down during a raid on Dusseldorf on 16 May 1943. All the crew were killed. (source: Night After Night: New Zealanders in Bomber Command, by Max Lambert p.15)

RNZAF squadrons flying in the Pacific in WWII also had aircraft with tiki nose art on them. I have seen at least one photo of a fighter with tiki nose art. No photos at hand at the moment, but I will see if I can track some down...

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-04-06 20:38 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-04-06 20:43 ]

Bingo! Here's a Vought F4U Corsair from No. 23 Squadron RNZAF:

Kohimarama is a suburb of Auckland; I'm not sure what the significance of No. IX was. You can even buy this plane as a model diecast:

Known as the "Ghost Squadron", No. 23 Squadron RNZAF operated from Guadalcanal in late 1944, flying missions against Japanese bases on Bougainville, where it was later based when the island was captured in 1945.

23 Squadron's badge:

This photo of the Corsair is not actually the one I had in mind. I'm still looking for that other photo, but that should do for now....

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-03-31 21:42 ]

Mention should probably also be made of No. 487 Squadron RNZAF, which was formed in England in August 1942 and flew De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers ("the wooden wonder") on various high-profile raids on Nazi-occupied Europe, including low-level attacks on Amiens prison in France (18 February 1944), the Gestapo HQ in Aarhus (Denmark) (31 October 1944), and the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen (Denmark) (21 March 1945).

This is its crest, which dates from January 1944:

The motto means "Through to the end" 8)

Then there was No. 6 Squadron RNZAF, formed in New Zealand in February 1942 and based in Fiji and later Espiritu Santo (New Hebrides), which flew long-distance patrols and did sea rescue work using Catalina flying boats.

Its crest (adopted in 1954), depicting the Maori God Tane showing an attitude of watchfulness in the form he adopted for sea travel:

And No. 31 Squadron RNZAF, formed in New Zealand in December 1943, and which flew Grumman Avenger dive bombers from the island of Bougainville.

Its crest, which dates from WWII (the squadron was disbanded in 1945):

"Be alert"

Further avenues for nose art research....

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-03-18 23:34 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-03-18 23:36 ]

Below is the other photo of a fighter aircraft I saw some time ago....

Thousands of New Zealand pilots fought in the RAF in World War II. One of them was Pilot Officer WH "Hugh" Dean of the
RNZAF, who was posted to No. 135 Squadron RAF, which was stationed in India. He was shot down in a dogfight with Japanese fighters on 31 March 1943 during the first Arakan campaign, the first attempt by the Indian Army and British Army at invading Japanese-occupied Burma.

Here he is with his Hawker Hurricane fighter, the nose art of which he painted himself:

The "lemon squeezer" hat is an iconic symbol of the New Zealand armed forces and has been placed atop the tiki for added effect. :)

Another photo of him with a fellow member of his unit named Charlie Beale:

(Source: Classic Warbirds: "The ANZACs" by Malcolm Laird & Steve Mackenzie)

I will keep fossicking around and see what else I can turn up about these flying kiwi tikis that went to war in WWII....

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-03-23 17:00 ]

On 2011-06-21 15:22, Grand Kahu wrote:
Here is one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43990177@N07/4407923618/

GK

This photo is intriguing. The link to its original page is now broken, so there is no source. Careful examination of the photo shows it is a WWII B-25 North American Mitchell bomber that looks like it has been repanelled, with one of the nose windows having been blocked out. The two rods in the lower right-hand corner are inner wing-mounted machine guns seen on the Mitchell.

Note that the design is a very untraditional riff on the New Zealand hei tiki: New Zealand aircrew in the RAF flew in two squadrons that had Mitchells: No. 180 Squadron and No. 226 Squadron. So it looks like another example of NZ tiki nose art from WWII, although if anyone has any further information to the contrary I would be curious to clear up this minor mystery....

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-03-31 17:10 ]

I never cease to be amazed at the dedication and thoroughness of the TC members! Great research and photos. I never knew there was Tiki nose art. My Dad was Army Air Corps, 1942-1945.

My interest in this comes from recently having met an old fellow who was in RAF Bomber Command in WWII. Oh my God the stuff those guys went through. From April 1940 to May 1945, RAF (NZ) No. 75 Squadron flew 8,150 sorties over Nazi-occupied Europe and lost 1,139 aircrew (452 of whom were New Zealanders; although it was established with NZ aircrew, 75 Squadron was a multi-national unit).

Further information that has come to hand recently; according to one RNZAF aviation enthusiasts' forum, No. 75 Squadron's original tiki emblem was actually drawn by an Australian who was a member of the squadron.

Another Kiwi tiki.

Not nose art, but the dog looks great.

-Lori

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2015-04-02 11:20 ]

^ :o Whoah! That postcard is pretty full-on. He looks like a gang dog....

The first photo shows a 75 Squadron emblem from the time when they were flying Skyhawks (1970-2001) and features on a Skyhawk exhibited at Ohakea airbase museum.

I hadn't seen the photo of the Hawker Hurricane before - any sources? I'm curious to know what squadron it was with.

There was also a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft that flew out of Imphal (India) in WWII that was called "Kia Ora" and had a "mascot" (tiki?) painted on it according to film archive sites I came across on-line but I have not managed to track down an image of it yet.

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-04-02 16:13 ]

More on the Stirling bomber named "Te Kooti", from "Night After Night: New Zealanders in Bomber Command" by Max Lambert:

"Te Kooti flew for the last time on 26 May 1943. The 15 Squadron Stirling crash-landed in a Dutch field at 2.15 a.m., the quiet of the night shattered by the roar of engines then the awful rending of metal as the bomber hit the ground, bounced and broke into a thousand pieces. The aircraft, flown by Australian John Wilson, came down about five miles from the Dutch town and German airfield of Venlo, in southeast Holland, after being savaged by flak three-quarters of an hour earlier near Dusseldorf. [....] No New Zealanders were on the Stirling that night but she had been a 'Kiwi' plane until three weeks earlier. She was almost new when skipper Irvine Renner's crew, four of them New Zealanders and all fresh to the squadron at Mildenhall, Suffolk, dubbed the plane Te Kooti in January 1943 and painted a large tiki on the fuselage under the cockpit. [...] Officially she was BK611-U (Uncle), but whenever the bomber hauled its way back into the airfield circuit after long flights to Germany, the crew always called up control announcing the arrival of Te Kooti, not U (Uncle), and the WAAFs on the RT knew instantly who was up above."

Irvine Renner chose the name because he was from the Poverty Bay district, which is where Te Kooti was born. His crew and bomber became well-known for flying a special mission to Berlin on 27 March 1943, when they were one of 3 crews that each dropped a 500-pound bomb covered with savings stamps bought by Londoners in Trafalgar Square as part of "Wings for Victory Week". Feelings were still running high after what the Luftwaffe had done to London during the Blitz in the Battle of Britain.

A couple more photos of New Zealand pilots who took tikis into the air during World War II:

Cobber Kain, a New Zealander who was the RAF's first air ace of WWII, flew with No. 73 Squadron, shot down 17 Luftwaffe aircraft during the Battle of France, and died on 7 June 1940 due to a flying accident.

Here he is wearing a small tiki, just visible over his dog tags:

"LONDON. April 5, 1940 - With eighteen pieces of shrapnel in his left foot, and one in his right hand, Flying-Officer E. J. ("Cobber") Kain, the first ace airman of the war to have five German machines to his credit, wears around his neck, attached to his metal Identification disc, a Maori greenstone tiki, or Maori luck charm. He is not superstitious, but wears the tiki for sentimental reasons. He was born in New Zealand twenty-one years ago."
http://acesofww2.com/newzealand/aces/kain/

And a gem of a photo, from Chittagong, in what is now Bangladesh, taken in February 1943:

"RAF and RNZAF pilots discuss a sortie by the nose of a Hawker Hurricane Mark IIC of a Hurricane fighter Sqn operating with No. 224 Group, RAF."
https://www.facebook.com/WWIIBECFFESEA19371946/photos/a.1496655923945034.1073741835.1496587907285169/1712435772367047/?type=3&theater

Years before any American plane ever had a tiki emblazoned on it...

What a cool thread!!!