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| The Aircraft : | |
| Name | Info |
| Hawk | The BAe Hawk News of the first flight of the Hawk on 21 August 1974 was greeted with derision by Hunter pilots at the RAF's tactical weapons training unit. For understandably selfish reasons they were sceptical about the ability of the Hawk to replace the rugged, versatile and much-loved Hunter. "Forget Hawk - Fly Hunter" was one typical bumper sticker of the time but now 25 years on, such scepticism seems barely credible. With the arrival of the first Hawk aircraft at RAF Valley in November 1976, a new era of flying training began, and the first of thousands of fast-jet pilots discovered the joys of flying this truly thoroughbred aircraft. Since then, the BAe Hawk has earned a reputation as the world's best advanced trainer and light strike aircraft. The basic design has been refined and improved in a series of variants ranging from multi-role light fighter to the US Navy's carrier trainer. But the one quality that sets the Hawk apart from other aircraft is handling characteristics. In the on pilots own words, - "I had flown the Gnat and Hunter and in 1979 had just finished flying Canberra PR9s before transferring to the Jaguar, when I was given the opportunity to get some flying on the Hawk. It was a revelation. Here was an aircraft that was pure joy to fly, at low level it settled comfortably at 450 knots at around 150 feet and it could be flown into valleys under the most frightening weather safe in the knowledge that it could be turned around without losing airspeed almost in its own length. And at medium level? 1v1 combat in this aircraft is something else, - compared with the Hawk, the Jaguar is like flying an anvil". |
| Artist Details : Gerald Coulson |
| Click here for a full list of all artwork by Gerald Coulson |
 Gerald Coulson Gerald Coulson has been painting professionally for over 47 years and has a reputation that is second to none. Entirely self taught, he developed his technique to such a high standard that his work was published as fine art prints, enabling him to begin a full time painting career in 1969. Since that time his work, covering many different subjects, has been published and marketed worldwide as both open and limited edition prints. Gerald has had many one-man shows both in the UK and the USA and his work has been extensively exhibited throughout the world. A recent one man show of his in the UK attracted more than 3000 people in two days. The Fine Art Trade Guild have placed him in the top ten best selling artists no less than fifteen times - three times at number one. Coulson's passion for aircraft stems from childhood. This passion led to an apprenticeship as an aircraft engineer after which he served in the RAF as a technician and with British Airways as an engineer at Heathrow. His knowledge of aircraft engineering, combined with his drawing ability, led to him becoming a Technical Illustrator of service manuals for Civil and Military aircraft. These experiences and technical background have allowed him an insight and intimate knowledge of the aircraft he paints. Along with a unique ability to capture these aircraft on canvas this naturally led to a painting career which he has developed to successfully cover a wide variety of subjects. Following a trip to the 1991 British Grand Prix his interest in Motor racing was fuelled. His ability to capture the technical detail and a talent for painting subjects at speed meant that this was a perfect natural progression alongside his aviation work and he is now also firmly established as one of the worlds leading motor racing artists. A Vice President and founder member of the Guild of Aviation Artists he is a four times winner of the Flight International Trophy for outstanding aviation painting. He qualified for his pilots licence in 1960 and is still actively flying today - mostly vintage aircraft, and can often be seen buzzing over the Fens of Cambridgeshire in a Tiger Moth. Whatever the subject he paints, whether aviation, landscape or portrait, his unique ability to capture the realism and 'mood'of the scene is unsurpassed, making him one of the most widely collected and highly regarded artists in the world today. Between 2003 and 2008 Cranston Fine Arts purchased the remaining back catalogue prints from Gerald Coulson's previous publishers. His early prints are now very sought after and many items which we purchased are now at very low stock levels with many sold out already. At the time of writing, many are down to the last 20 or even as low as the last few prints. We only sell direct to our customers and not through other outlets, which means nearly all these prints are exclusively available direct from us. Sadly Gerald passed away on the 6th of February 2021. More about Gerald Coulson |
Related Pages :
Red Arrows
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