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Pilot Signed Skyhawk Aircraft Prints by Stan Stokes and Nicolas Trudgian.
PCK2624. Pilot Signed Skyhawk Aircraft Prints by Stan Stokes and Nicolas Trudgian. Aviation Print Pack.
Items in this pack :
Item #1 - Click to view individual item
STK0055D. Fallen Eagle by Stan Stokes. The McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was designed by Ed Heinemann as a successor to the Skyraider attack bomber. The prototype aircraft first flew in 1954. The diminutive Skyhawk was only 42 feet in length, with a carrier friendly wingspan of 27 feet. The Skyhawk was capable of speeds close to 700 MPH, and was produced in several variants through 1979. The Skyhawk was utilized extensively in Vietnam for ground attack and support. As depicted in Stan Stokes painting entitled Fallen Eagle, the A-4 of a young Navy aviator, Everett Alvarez, has just taken off from the USS Constellation at 2:30 PM on August 5, 1964. Alvarez, a native of Salinas California, had attended the University of Santa Clara before joining the Navy. It was a day that Alvarez would not soon forget. About midnight that day the destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy were under attack from North Vietnamese patrol boats in international waters sixty miles off the coast of North Vietnam. Alvarez unit, the VA-144 Roadrunners, had been scrambled to assist the destroyers, but terrible weather conditions prevented any action. Washington decided to retaliate against these attacks by authorizing the first bombardment of North Vietnam on August 5, 1964. On that day twenty-two aircraft from the USS Ticonderoga attacked North Vietnam military targets at 1:15 PM. Only one aircraft was damaged during this first wave, and its pilot successfully made it back to an airfield in South Vietnam. The USS Constellation would provide a second wave involving 10 Skyhawks, 4 Skyraiders, and a single F-4 to provide fighter cover. Alvarez target was the harbor at Hon Gai, where his mission was to destroy any military patrol boats in the harbor. The lumbering Skyraiders were launched early, and Alvarez was the first of the ten Skyhawks off the Constellation. The Skyhawks rendezvoused at 20,000 feet before climbing to 30,000 feet for the seventy-five minute flight to the target area. Alvarez A-4 was equipped with a belly pod of 19 rockets. The Skyhawks streaked in over the harbor at 500 MPH in a shallow dive. Four torpedo boats and a larger coastal patrol ship were in the harbor. Alvarez made two passes over the harbor, and as he was passing over the southern edge of the town he saw a yellow flash to the port side of his windscreen accompanied by a popping sound. Seconds later the A-4 shook violently, and all the warning lights came on. The cockpit began to fill with smoke and the stick froze. With a final radio transmission, Im getting out! Ill see you guys later!, Alvarez pulled his ejection ring. Within seconds he was in the water. Picked-up minutes later by some very nervous fisherman, Everett Alvarez would become the first pilot shot down and captured over North Vietnam. It would be eight-and-one-half years later that Alvarez would be released, having endured hardships which would have broken anyone of less than the highest faith and courage. Everett Alvarez retired from the Navy in 1980, and was later a Deputy Director of the Peace Corps, and Deputy Director of the Veterans Administration. Signed by USN Lt Everrett Alvarez. Prints from the 225 prints from the signed limited edition of 4750 prints, with signature of Stan Stokes and pilot. Image size 16 inches x 11.5 inches (41cm x 30cm)
Item #2 - Click to view individual item
DHM2020AP. Alfa-Strike by Nicolas Trudgian. In the Vietnam war Squadron VA-163 was stationed aboard the carrier Oriskany on its second cruise, the squadrons A-4 Skyhawks were led by Commander Wynn Foster, one of the navys most aggressive strike leaders, and under Air Wing Commander James Stockdale, the A-4 pilots racked up a formidable record as a top fighting unit. Signed by Captain Hook Wynn Foster and Vice Admiral James Stockdale (deceased), in addition to the artist. Limited edition of artist proofs. Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm)
Website Price: £ 290.00
To purchase these prints individually at their normal retail price would cost £350.00 . By buying them together in this special pack, you save £60
All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling
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| Signatures on this item | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Everrett Alvarez Jr
*Signature Value : £35 (matted)
| Alvarez was born in 1937 in Salinas, California. He is the grandson of immigrants from Mexico. He went to Santa Clara University on an academic scholarship. He joined the United States Navy in 1960 and was selected for pilot training. On August 5th, 1964, during Operation Pierce Arrow, LTJG. Alvarez's Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was shot down in the immediate aftermath of what is known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Alvarez's call sign was Four-Eleven, and he came up on the air saying, 411, I'm hit, followed by I can't control it. I'm ejecting. Accompanying aircraft heard his emergency beeper, made three or four orbits, and then were forced to leave the area because of low fuel states. Alvarez was captured about 4:00 pm Hanoi time at Ha Long Bay near the Hon Gai target. He was kept in a local jail cell in Hon Gai with two Vietnamese prisoners for two days, then moved to a nearby farm until August 12th. On the 12th, he was taken to Hanoi, arriving at Hoa Lo prison (later called the Hanoi Hilton) around 4:00 pm. He was put in room 24, where he lived until March of 1965 when other American prisoners started to arrive. The Navy had lost two aviators, LTJG Everett Alvarez from VA 144 and LTJG Richard C. Sather from VA 145, an A-1 squadron. Alvarez earned the dubious distinction of being the first naval aviator captured by the North Vietnamese and spent eight-and-one-half years in captivity by the North Vietnamese, in which he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. Alvarez was especially esteemed by his fellow prisoners because he was for almost a year the only aviator prisoner of war. |
| Signatures on item 2 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Captain Hook Wynn Foster (deceased)
*Signature Value : £45 (matted)
| On 23 July 1966 Wynn Foster was flying his 163rd combat mission of the Vietnam War when anti-aircraft artillery hit his A-4 Skyhawk. 39 year old Commander Wynn Franklin Foster USN ejected from his Douglas A-4E Skyhawk single seat attack aircraft. The aircraft, AH/30, 'Old Salt One', belonging to VA-163 / Air Wing 16 from the carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) was flying an Alpha Strike mission through a clear sky with scattered cumulus over the Gulf of Tonkin when it was struck by Vietnamese AAA. The enemy fire severed his right arm at the elbow. Bleeding profusely, his still-gloved hand lying on the starboard console, Foster flew his plane out over the Tonkin Gulf and ejected. Foster's aggressive response to his life-altering injury threw him into conflict with his care providers and officers and bureaucrats in the Navy's hierarchy. Confident that he could continue to be of service to the Navy, he embarked on a long legal battle to remain on active duty, finally winning the right to complete his naval career. Promoted to captain and awarded the call sign 'Captain Hook', he made two subsequent deployments to the Western Pacific. Captain Wynn Foster was willing to test society's preconceptions about the handicapped, and his case was ultimately successful because he was willing to test his own limits. He died on 9th June 2013. | 
Vice Admiral James Stockdale (deceased)
*Signature Value : £45 (matted)
| Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale was born on the 23rd of December 1923 in Abingdon, Illinois and, in 1946 following a brief period at Monmouth College, attended the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland from which he graduated with the class of 1947. During the Vietnam war Stockdale led aerial attacks from the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)) during the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. While Commander of Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the carrier USS Oriskany (CV-13), on September 1965, Stockdale ejected over enemy territory from his A-4E Skyhawk, which had been disabled from friendly fire after the mechanical malfunction of his wing-mans ordanance. Stockdale ejected and parachuted into a small village, where he was severely beaten and taken into custody. James Stockdale was the highest-ranking naval officer held as a POW in Vietnam. He was awarded 26 personal combat decorations, including the Medal of Honor and four Silver Stars. From October 13th, 1977, until August 22nd, 1979, Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale became the President of the Naval War College. Stockdale also became a candidate for Vice President of the United States duirng the 1992 presedenial elections – Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale succumbed to Alzheimers desease and died on the 5th of July, 2005. In January 2006, the Navy announced that the USS Stockdale DDG-106, an Arleigh Burke–class guided missile destroyer, would be named for him. |
| Artist Details : Nicolas Trudgian | | Click here for a full list of all artwork by Nicolas Trudgian |
Nicolas Trudgian
Cranston Fine Arts have now taken over all remaining stocks of Nicolas Trudgian prints from his previous publishers. We have made available a great many prints that had not been seen for many years, and have uncovered some rarities which lay unnoticed during this transition. Having graduated from art college, Nicolas Trudgian spent many years as a professional illustrator before turning to a career in fine art painting. His crisp style of realism, attention to detail, compositional skills and bright use of colours, immediately found favour with collectors and demand for his original work soared on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, more than a decade after becoming a fine art painter, Nicolas Trudgian is firmly established within a tiny, elite group of aviation artists whose works are genuinely collected world-wide. When he paints an aircraft you can be sure he has researched it in every detail and when he puts it over a particular airfield, the chances are he has paid it a recent visit. Even when he paints a sunset over a tropical island, or mist hanging over a valley in China, most probably he has seen it with his own eyes. Nick was born and raised in the seafaring city of Plymouth, the port from which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in 1620, and where Sir Francis Drake played bowls while awaiting the Spanish Armada. Growing up in a house close to the railway station within a busy military city, the harbour always teeming with naval vessels and the skies above resonating with the sounds of naval aircraft, it was not at all surprising the young Nick became fascinated with trains, boats and aircraft. It was from his father, himself a talented artist, that Nick acquired his love of drawing and surrounded by so much that was inspiring, there was never a shortage of ideas for pictures. His talent began to show at an early age and although he did well enough at school, he always spent a disproportionate amount of time drawing. People talked about him becoming a Naval officer or an architect but in 1975 Nick's mind was made up. When he told his careers teacher he wanted to go to art school the man said, 'Now come on, what do you really want to do? After leaving school Nick began a one-year foundation course at the Plymouth College of Art. Now armed with an impressive portfolio containing paintings of jet aircraft, trains, even wildlife, he was immediately accepted at every college he applied to join. He chose a course at the Falmouth College of Art in Cornwall specialising in technical illustration and paintings of machines and vehicles for industry. It was perfect for Nick, and he was to become one of the star pupils. One of the lecturers commented at the time: Every college needs someone with a talent like Nick to raise the standards sky high; he carried all the other students along with him, and created an effect which will last for years to come. Two weeks after leaving art college Nick blew every penny he had on a trip to South Africa to ride the great steam trains across the desert, sketching them at every opportunity. Returning to England, in best traditions of all young artists, he struggled to make a living. Paintings by an unknown artist didn't fetch much despite the painstaking effort and time Nick put into each work, so when the college he had recently left offered him a job as a lecturer, he jumped at the chance. The money was good and he discovered that he really enjoyed teaching. Throughout the 1970s Nick was much involved with a railway preservation society near Plymouth and it was through the railway society that he had his first pictures reproduced as prints. But Nick felt he needed to advance his career and in summer 1985 Nick moved away from Cornwall to join an energetic new design studio in Wiltshire. Here he painted detailed artwork for many major companies including Rolls Royce, General Motors, Volvo Trucks, Alfa Romeo and, to his delight, the aviation and defence industries. He remembers the job as exciting though stressful, often requiring him to work right through the night to meet a client's deadline. Here he learned to be disciplined and fast. Towards the end of the 1980's Nick had the chance to work for the Military Gallery. This was the break that for years he had been striving towards and with typical enthusiasm, flung himself into his new role. After completing a series of aviation posters, including a gigantic painting to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Royal Air Force, Nick's first aviation scene to be published as a limited edition was launched by the Military Gallery in 1991. Despite the fact he was unknown in the field, it was an immediate success. Over the past decade Nick has earned a special reputation for giving those who love his work much more than just aircraft in his paintings. He goes to enormous lengths with his backgrounds, filling them with interesting and accurate detail, all designed to help give the aircraft in his paintings a tremendous sense of location and purpose. His landscapes are quite breathtaking and his buildings demonstrate an uncanny knowledge of perspective but it is the hardware in his paintings which are most striking. Whether it is an aircraft, tank, petrol bowser, or tractor, Nick brings it to life with all the inordinate skill of a truly accomplished fine art painter. A prodigious researcher, Nick travels extensively in his constant quest for information and fresh ideas. He has visited India, China, South Africa, South America, the Caribbean and travels regularly to the United States and Canada. He likes nothing better than to be out and about with sketchbook at the ready and if there is an old steam train in the vicinity, well that's a bonus!
More about Nicolas Trudgian
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