How to Draw and Paint Aircraft Like a Pro

Andy Whyte was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He grew up with a love for aviation inspired by his father, who served in the Royal Flying Corps and later in the Royal Air Force. Andy spent World War II in naval aviation as a flight engineer/gunner in SBDs (dive bombers), Consolidated PBYs (amphibious aircraft), Martin PBMs (patrol bombers), and Lockheed PV-2s (patrol bombers). After majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma, he joined Sikorsky Aircraft in the advanced design group. He melded engineering and art to produce configuration studies and hundreds of paintings for engineering and marketing efforts. After retiring from Sikorsky Aircraft, he continued his career as an artist, both for Sikorsky and a growing number of clients. He has won numerous honors for his art, including the prestigious R. G. Smith Award for Excellence in Naval Aviation Art awarded by the Naval Aviation Museum, and awards by Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. He continues to do extensive commissioned work, including paintings for the U.S. Coast Guard and a growing list of clients.

Ann Cooper is an accomplished author and writer, with twelve books and more than seven hundred articles published in such magazines as Private Pilot, Sport Pilot, Kitplanes, and Aviation History. Her latest book, Stars of the Sky, Legends All, was co-published by Zenith Press and Women in Aviation, International. She was the longtime editor of Aero Brush, the quarterly magazine of the American Society of Aviation Artists. She has been a rated pilot for more than thirty-five years and is currently an instrument-rated Certified Flight Instructor with more than two thousand flight hours logged.

Charles “Charlie” Cooper entered the U.S. Air Force in 1955, retiring in 1991 as a two-star general with well over four thousand hours logged as an air force master navigator. He joined the New York Air National Guard in 1962, rose rapidly through operations and command positions, and served for seven years as its commander. He is a member of numerous aviation-related and veterans’ organizations and a member of the Board of Managers of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Ann and Charlie Cooper have authored four books together; their latest is Into the Sunlit Splendor, featuring some 170 paintings by William S. Phillips.