Old Aviation Advertisements

And this one is from March 1941:

During a little library research recently (not aviation-related), I came across the following. It’s from early 1963

Now that photo-loading is back, a change of tack. I suspect that this is a poster rather than an advertisement but it’s a colourful restart anyway. I’m not sure about its date:

That makes sense. I seem to recall an aircraft drawing by Armstrong Whitworth in connection with the work of the Brabazon Committee

They are both steps down the road that led to the Brabazon (starting from their ‘100ton Bomber’ concept)

This is from the Aviation Ancestry website – see also Schneiderman‘s post (#21) – a different tailplane but similar shape and similar powerplants. Were these drawings in connection with any particular official specification?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]260498[/ATTACH]

January 1944
[ATTACH=CONFIG]260495[/ATTACH]

And now for something completely different – from mid 1946.

Buy yourself a complete parachute, contained in a metal cylinder, with many potential uses around the home and to keep the kids amused:

The aviation ancestry website includes a number of Fairey adverts showing off their Gannets. I don’t think this one is on that website:

Imperial Airways ‘stamp’ from 1937 – not an advertisement as such but certainly advertising:

At the end of March, I posted images of an advertising brochure for the Tu-114, an aircraft I recall as being a turboprop that stood high on the ground, but was fast and had a very long range.

By coincidence, I saw an article in the latest issue of TIME (10 April cover date) which compared the Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to the USA with that of Kruschev almost 60 years ago. It said, in passing, “Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev arrived in September 1959 in a Tupolev 114 with cracks in the fuselage to knock around the country for 13 days“.

I don’t recall ever reading about cracks in the Tu-114’s fuselage before. Can someone please enlighten me?

Re: North Eastern Airways ad….The privately owned airlines were trying to stake out some kind of market post-war but the way BOAC had been set up in 1939 left little scope for the ‘indies’ and all their aircraft had been placed at the service of the nation

You’re right, there are certainly examples of great artwork around, sometimes by artists who are collectable in their own right. I mentioned Abram Games in an earlier post. Here is another example.

In the mid-1950s, Pan Am was seeking to take air travel, hitherto largely the preserve of the rich and famous, to a broader market. To this end, their advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, proposed that Pan Am sponsor a world tour by the artist Norman Rockwell, who had provided many covers for THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, images well-known to, and well-regarded by, middle America.

Rockwell’s tour took place in September and October 1955, the adverts appearing the following year, but it was not a meeting of minds. Rockwell wanted to show the “Peoples of the World” and the way they lived their lives, whereas Pan Am wanted middle-class Americans to be shown potential vacation spots abroad.

They say every picture tells a story and Rockwell demonstrates this notion in many of his works. He depicted people in situations such that you could sense their hopes and fears. The ‘story’ was often portrayed with humour and understanding, sometimes idealised, sometimes with social comment. Even his portraits conveyed the character of the sitter.

The Pan Am advert below is one such. It features uniformed Pan Am pilot John Mattis, a veteran of 500 Atlantic crossings, it says. Clear-eyed and with a steady gaze , he looks straight at the reader – serious but dependable, trustworthy, rugged even, an impression confirmed by the text. But what of the boy, toting his Pan Am cabin bag and looking up at the airline captain, as though at a poster? What’s in his mind, I wonder?

There is still original artwork to be had. I managed to get some original Trevithick examples for pre war advertising in Aviation magazines.
With the bosses permission I was allowed to hang them in the stair well as well as display the stripped Spitfire blade.

Take up the challenge, there is great artwork around.

For daveg4oyu, a cigarette advertisement with a photo captioned: “Gliding:a fine day over Hampshire“:

In the wartime editions of FLIGHT, available on-line, there are many advertisements from aircraft manufacturers and suppliers. Presumably, they had to be cleared but that didn’t stop them from advertising. Unsurprisingly, I have not found in its pages any from ‘airlines’ (they may be there but, if so, I haven’t come across them).

I did find one British airline advertisement, though, but it was in a 1942 book, as I recall. It was placed by North Eastern Airways, mentioned its pre-war activities, and its contribution to the war effort and looked forward to resuming services after the war. It offered a ‘memorandum’ on ‘The Future of Civil Aviation’. I’ve never seen it but I bet it didn’t predict what transpired. Anyway, here’s the ad in question:

Well, winning the war is great, but making a profit is personal.

A Quick question .Some of the adverts were just prior to the war and even some during the war.Would they be restricted for secrecy ?

I did this — bought a number of old ads off eBay, then mounted them in the hangar where I keep the Fairchild.

Now I have to upgrade the old photos!