Featured Pilot

Bond was born in 1915 in Dallas, Texas. His military career began in the Texas National Guard, and he was commissioned in 1939 at Randolph Field, Texas. His first assignment was flying B-17s based at Langley Field, Virginia. During this period, he participated in one of the first good-will flights to South America in 1939. After joining the AVG, he was assigned to the Adam & Eves, and recalls being the first to introduce the painted shark mouth motif on AVG P-40s. One of the Tigers great aces, he was credited with shooting down three Japanese aircraft in one mission in the defense of Rangoon. While serving with the AVG, Bond was shot down twice, and was ultimately credited with 8.77 victories. In 1942, Barld rejoined the U.S. Army Air Corps and began teaching combat skills to new pilots. A year later he served as an Ambassadors aide in the U.S. Military Mission to the U.S.S.R. in Moscow. In 1949, Bond graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Management Engineering. He then completed nearly 20 years in military leadersnip positions throughout the United States, Europe and Far East. After serving as Commander 12th Air Force, USAF, he retired with at the rank of Maj. General in 1968. Sadly, Charles Bond passed away on 18th August 2009.

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Featured Aviation Artist

David Rowlands has had a passion for sketching British soldiers and their equipment ever since he was a boy. After completing his studies at Manchester University in 1977, he joined the staff of the Reading Room at the National Army Museum, working full-time as a professional artist. Keenly interested in the history of British campaigns, uniforms and tactics, he has painted many historical battle scenes with great attention to accuracy and detail. This has resulted in widespread recognition of his work with the result that he has been commissioned to record the activities of many Regiments in the present day. These commissions have taken him frequently to Northern Ireland, as well as Germany, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Gibraltar. In 1991 David Rowlands was the only artist invited by the Army to visit the Gulf. Attached to a Warrior crew of 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, he observed the work of the various Arms at first hand, enabling him to complete many accurate paintings for Regiments and Corps engaged in the conflict. Early in 1993 he was the first war artist to visit Bosnia and record the British troops in Operation GRAPPLE 1. Invited by Headquarters National Support Element, he travelled extensively on convoys and sketched the operations from Split to Vitez and Travnik. Several paintings have been commissioned by the participating units, including one of 7 Armoured Workshop REME at Gornji Vakul. Over the past ten years David has been sent regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan for projects involving many of the British and Nato forces. He has probably spent as much time overseas gathering information for these projects as he has spent in the UK. He is certainly one of the major military artists of the past 20 years. Many of these fine paintings are now available as signed edtion art prints and canvases.

View the profile page of David Rowlands