• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Contact

Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

The golden age of British aviation art

The Telegraph has a fascinating article about the golden age of British aviation art back when flying was still new and the preserve of “crackpots, inventors and the goggled rich…” Hence, the general public needed to be convinced that flying was safe and that’s where aviation art came into play.

British Aviation Posters: Art, Design and FlightApparently, British aviation art for commercial aviation began around the time Imperial Airways formed in 1924 with just 15 aircraft – two of which crashed during the first year of operation. Imperial then hired a publicity manager who enlisted artists or illustrators like Ben Nicholson, John Piper and László Moholy Nagy to help with a promotional campaign to sell “dreams” rather than airline tickets.

World War II suspended commercial aviation in Britain but when it resumed after the war, so did aviation art. It was not until the jet age of the 1970s before aviation posters were finally done in by other forms of media like TV commercials.

If you are interested in learning more about British aviation art, The Telegraph mentioned a new book entitled British Aviation Posters which is collection of more than 150 posters from British Airways’ archive.

In addition, a quick search of Google reviews the website of the Military Print Company which has a very good collection of British military aviation related posters for sale plus the website of the Guild of Aviation Artists which has an online gallery of all 455 paintings by 149 artists in their 2012 gallery. The Guild’s 42nd Open Annual ‘Aviation Paintings of the Year’ Summer Exhibition will also be opened at The Mall Galleries on Monday and it will run until Sunday July 22. 2012.

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Best of the Web: Fall aviation books (plus one forgotten movie) - Golf Hotel Whiskey says:
    September 30, 2012 at 15:38

    […] Bringing together a collection of more than 150 posters from British Airways’ archive, “British Aviation Posters” tells the story about the golden age of British aviation art when flying was still new and the […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Matthew Stibbe
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He has an FAA CPL/IR and an EASA PPL/IR and sometimes flies a Cirrus SR-22. He also writes about wine at Vincarta and being a better manager at Geek Boss.
Bureaucracy must die eBook
Subscribe via RSS

Recent Posts

  • IATA Airport Abbreviations
  • Upcoming Concorde and Apollo documentaries
  • Lie Back And Think Of England: London To Austin On BA’s New 787 Dreamliner
  • Video: Parachuting from the edge of space
  • Hilarious preflight safety video for GA aircraft
  • San Francisco Airport at night – beautiful time lapse video
  • A practical jetpack (finally) takes off
  • A man in a hot air balloon realises he is lost
  • Pegasus House: The former HQ of the Bristol Aeroplane Company is restored
  • Vintage British aviation posters from the 1920-1930s

Copyright © 2023 Golf Hotel Whiskey. All rights reserved.