Jeep

Jeep, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A late Motorcar Monday entry (sorry!). We all know what a Jeep is-a bare bones off-road machine. And they don't come more bare-bones than a military Jeep. Originally developed by American Bantam in an amazing 49 days, the original Jeep is better known as a Willys product, as the military felt that Bantam wasn't a large enough company to supply enough vehicles. Eventually Ford produced Jeeps, during the war, and postwar Delahaye and Hotchkiss in France, as well as Mitsubishi and Toyota in Japan cranked them out as well.

Fun fact-for many years, you'd see ads for ex-military Jeeps "still in the crate", having been found in some backwater base in the desert Southwest, or rescued from a long forgotten supply depot on a tiny Pacific island. In fact, for a long time there were ads from collectors wanting to buy WW2 Jeeps still in their crates.

Jeeps never shipped in crates.

The Liberty Belle

I recounted a bit about Boeing's B-17 a week or so ago, but felt it was worthwhile to show you another, clearer photo of the Liberty Belle's nose art. The practice of personalizing aircraft began during before World War One, particularly with German and Italian pilots. During the war German pilots were renowned for painting all manner of garish designs on their mounts, with scant regard to camouflage-after all, the Red Baron was a real pilot, and his personal planes were all pure scarlet. Other popular motifs were mouths painted around the propeller spinners, as well as the American tradition of squadron logos on the sides of planes.

But, nose art truly came into it's own during the second World War. Often considered the Golden Age of this particular art, both Axis and Allied pilots indulged, particularly American bomber crews. In fact, when one thinks of nose art one almost automatically imagines a big B-24 or something, with a cartoon character or Vargas girl splashed on the side. Good artists were in high demand within Air Corps squadrons, and were well paid by the crews for their services. Popular themes were cartoon characters, tributes to famous people, and the aforementioned Vargas-style pinups.

The Liberty Belle is a good example of the latter. Sadly, she's no more, having crashed soon after takeoff on June 13, 2011.