Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, United States military aviators worked persistently for the creation of a separate air force. On September 18, 1947, their efforts came to fruition as the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate service equal to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy under the Department of Defense.
On September 18, 2007, the Air Force will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, and the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force proudly supports the year-long celebration leading up to the event with this exhibition of official U.S. Air Force art.
In World Wars I and II, the U.S. Army sent artists overseas to record the Army's experiences. When the Air Force became a separate service, the Army transferred about 800 works of art dealing with military aviation to the new separate service. To aid recruiting efforts, the Air Force sponsored 30 artists on a tour of Air Force installations in 1951, and the following year they sponsored artists from the Society of Illustrators of New York. Pleased with the success of these efforts, the Air Force established its own art program to capture through artists' imaginations the people, equipment, activities, facilities, and other historically significant subjects related to the Air Force and its predecessor organizations.
Drawn from the Air Force Art Program and the National Museum of the USAF, the works in this exhibit illustrate the sixty years of air and space power history created by the U.S. Air Force. In addition to showing people, aircraft, spacecraft, and events, this art displays a common threat -- the Air Force's Core Values of integrity, service before self, and excellence.
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