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This image shows "Thunder Bird" of the 303rd Bomb Group, on its 80th mission -a mission to Schweinfurt, Germany, which had claimed 163 four-engine bombers and 1500 crew members on previous missions. This 9 October 1944 mission was the 303rd Bomb Group's fifth and "Thunder Bird's" second, visit to this dangerous target.
It was to prove a respite, although each day crews faced the cold, thin air, often at -40C, in patched-up, worn-out airplanes. "Thunder Bird" had seen as many as nine and eleven sister ships lost to fighters on previous missions but she was to carry more than 500 crew members into combat on 116 missions before her retirement on 22 March 1945.
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An artist’s career can rest on the simplest of things. For Keith Ferris, it was
an allergic condition which kept him from becoming a pilot for the Air Force.
But he didn’t let that stop him from making his love of aviation his life.
Instead, he channeled his energy and enthusiasm into becoming an aviation
lecturer, historian, model-builder, inventor and artist known for his
scrupulous accuracy of aircraft and events. It also didn’t keep him from flying
all over the world in almost every type of jet aircraft possble.
His knowledge of the industry and passion for sharing the thrill of flight was
all in the family. He was the son of an Air Force officer and grew up on
military bases in the U.S. and England. He majored in aeronautical engineering
at Texas A&M University and enrolled in the Air Force ROTC. Since then he has
painted for almost every major defense contractor in America and completed a
variety of commissions for the U.S. Government, both practical and creative.
He holds the patents for five air combat camouflage paint schemes and painted
two twenty-five by seventy-five-foot murals for the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He has been elected a life
member of the Society of Illustrators and the Order of Daedalians, the national
fraternity of military pilots. He is Honorary Air Force Art Chairman, past
executive vice president of the Society of Illustrators and founder as well as
past president of the American Society of Aviation Artists.
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