Robert Taylor DESERT SHARKS Curtiss P-40 7 SIGNATURE! Aviation Art Pencil Print

  
Over 2000 positive feedbacks received - no worries! Check my auctions for more Robert Taylor, John Shaw, John Young, James Dietz, Nicolas Trudgian, William S. Phillips, Keith Ferris, Jack Fellows, Harley Copic, Roy Grinnell, Frank Wootton and other aviation art prints.

Also, signed & unsigned books, signed WW2 Ace biography sheets from the American Fighter Aces Association, and 1/48 scale kits from companies such as Tamiya, Hasegawa, Eduard, Revell, Monogram, etc. Robert Taylor DESERT SHARKS Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk Aviation Art Pencil Print. SIZE: 16 by 21.5 inches.

SIGNATURES: Hand-signed and numbered in pencil by the artist Robert Taylor and SEVEN pilots from the famous "Shark" Squadron. Comes with the Certificate of Authenticity. 50 of these prints were issued as a companion print with the "Desert Hawks" Artist Proofs.

They were not pilot signed. The Military Gallery also released this print in its own edition signed by 7 pilots who flew in the famous 112 "Shark" Squadron. These pilot-signed editions are very hard to find! Robert Taylor's "Desert Sharks" print was issued specifically to pay tribute to this robust warbird, and to all the courageous fighter pilots who flew the P-40. This wonderfully evocative drawing depicts a Kittyhawk of 112 Squadron RAF being flown by their CO Squadron Leader Clive Caldwell.

Caldwell was the top-scoring Australian fighter pilot of the war, and he was the top-scoring P-40 pilot of all nations! Here he is seen over the coast of Libya in late 1941.

112 Squadron had already been in the thick of the action throughout Wavell's early encounters in the Western Desert, then in the fighting and eventual withdrawal from Greece, before returning to the Western Desert in 1941. At this time, they adopted the famous shark's teeth marking by which the squadron and the P-40 were known thereafter.

Yes, AVG Flying Tigers fans, the first shark mouth on a P-40 was in RAF 112 Squadron! AVG pilots spotted one of 112 Squadron's shark mouth P-40s on the cover of the magazine "The Illustrated Weekly of India", and decided their P-40s needed that menacing design too. The renowned Curtis P40 Warhawk was, by the time of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, numerically the most important American fighter aircraft and had already been supplied to the RAF in mid-1940, where it was first designated the Tomahawk, and later versions the Kittyhawk. This classic aircraft remained in continuous front line service and flew in most theaters of operation throughout World War II.

Never framed, stored flat in a non-smoking, climate-controlled environment. Check my feedback - it's excellent.

I ask for the same consideration from you. I will pack your print very carefully so it arrives undamaged.