A tradition that is associated with the history of combat is the warrior's desire to decorate their instruments of war. History is filled with examples of this tradition: Egyptian chariots, Viking ships, Zulu warriors, Native American war paint and Samurai. This was done for a variety of reasons: protection from evil, personal identification, to receive supernatural powers from gods, etc.
"Nose Art" is the genre of art used to decorate combat aircraft. When men started using airplanes as an instrument of war, they decorated them with this unique art form. The reasons during the Twentieth Century were also numerous and include: a battle cry, teasing the enemy, for good luck, etc. Nose art made the aircraft easier to identify other than just simply using the serial number. This provided the plane a personality; it became an entity.
The Italians and Germans are credited with initiating Aircraft Nose Art. The first recorded example appeared as early as 1913. It was a sea monster painted on the nose of an Italian flying boat. The Germans in the late World War I, also initiated the tradition by adding a painted mouth under the propeller spinner of the nose. Some prefer to describe this as the first nose art because it was applied to the front rather than the side of the airplane; hence the name "nose art."
Nose art took on many forms such as: cartoon characters, graffiti, animals and of course the female pin-up.
In the themed world of the VGL, each cockpit needed to be unique and personalized. We adopted the tradition and did the same to every Virtual World BattleTech Cockpit.
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