MYSTERY SOLVED - AAHM LEARNS HISTORY
OF MYSTERY NOSE ART® PANEL

Midland, Texas (Nov. 28, 2005) - A mystery for more than four decades at the American Airpower Heritage Museum, located at CAF Headquarters in Midland, Texas, has been solved. In the mid-1960s, a number of World War II bombers were being scrapped. The owner of the scrap yard salvaged the paintings on the noses of many of these bombers. These panels, dubbed Nose Art® by the American Airpower Heritage Museum , were donated to the museum in the 1970s, constituting the world's largest collection of this type of folk art. Over the years, museum personnel have traced the history of most of the panels. However, the background of one panel depicting the bust of a woman and the single word "Mutz" remained a mystery - until this week.

In an interesting tale of coincidences, an Air Force pilot traveling through Midland many years ago took pictures of the museum's Nose Art collection. He created an informational Web page about Nose Art and included some of these images. Harold W. Traub found the site and noticed a familiar picture. Recently, he contacted the American Airpower Heritage Museum and related the tale behind "Mutz".

According to Traub, the "Mutz" depicted in the portrait painted on B-17G, Serial No. 43-39027 is his wife of 61 years, Muriel. "I was the pilot of the B-17G which was given to me literally straight from the factory," said Traub in his e-mail. Traub was stationed at Wright Field in Dayton , Ohio , Special Weapons Branch, Engineering Division. He and the B-17G were sent on temporary duty to Wendover , Utah , for test work on guided missiles and remote controlled aircraft. It was at Wendover that the art work was done in full color by a lab technician with an airbrush, who copied the picture from a wallet sized photo that Traub carried with him. The panel is the only one in the museum's collection that is airbrushed.

"Mutz" was the nickname given to his wife by friends while she was still a child. The name stuck, and she and her nickname are now memorialized forever by the Nose Art panel displayed in the museum's Nose Art Gallery .

"It's important to have this history," said museum Preservation Director Annelorre Robertson. "It helps visitors identify with the panel and makes it more of a story than just a piece of art hanging on the wall."

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