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.