CRAIG KODERA- LIMITED EDITIONS

CRAIG KODERA
A.M. Sortie

Countersigned by Anthony W. LeVier, Lockheed Chief Experimental Test Pilot and Director of Flying Operations (Ret.)

A.M. Sortie is an important work of countersigned art that honors one of the most distinctive-looking U.S. Army Air Corps planes and one of the world's greatest pilots. "I'm excited and pleased to present this image of Tony LeVier flying a P-38," says Kodera, who is also a first officer with American Airlines. "I pictured these three aircraft-the last of the 'J' models-near the Lockheed factory in Burbank, California, in the autumn of 1944."  The P-38 Lightning originated as the winner of an Army Air Corps design competition for a high-performance, high altitude pursuit plane. Subsequently, the P-38 operated in all theatres throughout World War II, being particularly effective as an escort fighter. LeVier was responsible not only for flying production tests on the P-38 but for touring fighter bases to conduct demonstrations on the P-38 for both the 8^th and 9^th Fighter Commands.  Now LeVier is reunited with the P-38 after a long and illustrious life of test-flying Lockheed aircraft, including the forerunners of the F-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2. He is also the recipient of numerous awards and honors-in particular, the International Flight Research Corporation's Revoredo Trophy, the J.H. Doolittle Award, and membership in the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.

CRAIG KODERA
The A-Team

The Air Reserves Forces were once known as the Hand-me-down-Roses of the Air Force Department, but since 1974, the fact and the image have been changing.  The Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard now receive new, State-of-the-art aircraft, and AFRES is as involved in current operations as the Active Duty Forces.  Craig Kodera's painting, "The A-Team," depicts the ANG F-16's from the Hill Unit and ANG F-16's from the TAC Fighter Group at McEntire ANG Base, SC. Center stage is the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender, which is capable of 13-hour flights while refueling fighters. This KC-10 is from the 452^nd Air Refueling Wing at March AFB, CA.  Aviation Artist Craig Kodera, a member of the 79^th Air Refueling Squadron, is an Aircraft Commander on the KC-10 portrayed. The action depicted is the moment when the F-16 is about to make contact with the boom and begin refueling.

CRAIG KODERA
Canyon Starliner

"When I contemplated an artistic tribute to the airline industry," says noted aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera, "I could imagine no other more representative aircraft than the Lockheed Constellation. It was a thing of beauty, with its sleek lines and polished aluminum skin."  The Lockheed Constellation was a 1939 design that was first used by commercial airlines in late 1945. By then, the Aircraft had taken advantage of the latest technology and had spacious provisions for passengers. Its long-range, land-based capability literally transformed "Transcontinental and Western Air" into Trans World Airlines."  Kodera presents the Lockheed L-749A Constellation Star of Arizona over the magnificent valleys of the Grand Canyon - a fitting locale for one of commercial aviation's finest aircraft. and a fitting tribute to Kodera's artistic skills.

CRAIG KODERA
Fifty Years a Lady

No other airplane has revolutionized air transportation so much, flown as many hours, served as many airlines or flown in continuous revenue service as long as the DC-3.  Of Fifty Years A Lady Craig Kodera says, "I strove to evoke a sense of warmth, nostalgia and romance. Never have so many stories been written about a single airplane; never has one airplane been so much a part of our consciousness. It seems that everyone, at one time or another, has flown on a DC-3. This is for all of them. My goal was to capture not just the airframe, but the spirit of aviation, which is the Douglas DC-3."

CRAIG KODERA
The Great Greenwich Balloon Race

Ballooning. No other form of flight so closely captures the feeling of freedom in air.  The first balloons were made of everything from varnished taffeta to cloth and rubber, while today's airships are of colorful nylon and polyester. Modern balloons carry the latest in flight instrumentation: vertical speed indicators, altimeters and propane gas level indicators. Travel is limited to the early hours of the morning, when the air is cool and dense, because balloons cannot tolerate more than ten knots of wind while they are inflating or ascending.  Artist Craig Kodera tells us, "The Great Greenwich Balloon Race is completely fictitious. That's what makes it fun! I wanted to let my color sense and concepts of design run wild with these joyful airships. If you feel as though you're up there with 'em, then I've succeeded at my job."

CRAIG KODERA
Green Light - Jump!

It is 12:30 a.m. on D-Day, June 6, 1944. By the light of a full moon, C-47s from the 89^th troop carrier squadron, 438^th troop carrier group, pass over the Normandy countryside. These aircraft are among 850 C-47s taking over 15,000 troops to enact the initial assault in the D-Day invasion.  General Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the Douglas C-47 one of the few pieces of equipment "vital to our success in Africa and Europe." The aircraft itself, however, would have meant nothing without the fearless airborne forces, who at the signal "Green light, jump!" parachuted into battle. Artist Craig Kodera pays homage to men and machines while capturing one of the most exciting and decisive moments in World War II.  Kodera served as a reservist in the Strategic Air Command for several years, where he flew the McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender and the Lockheed HC-130H Hercules. Currently a pilot for American Airlines, Kodera is a member of the Air Force Art Program and the American Society of Aviation Artists. His paintings, praised for their dynamic realism, hang in several major museums, including the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

CRAIG KODERA
Halsey's Surprise

Halsey's Surprise is American Airlines First Officer and aviation artist Craig Kodera's homage to Robert K. Morgan and the planes he flew during World War II.  "It's November 1943," Kodera says," and these are two Douglas SBD-5's from Squadron VB-12 of the USS Saratoga. They are starting Operation Cherryblossom-a maneuver which signaled the beginning of the end of the war in the Pacific."  Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey was the commander, and Cherryblossom caught the Japanese forces at Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, off guard. On November 1, the U.S. 3^rd Marine Division landed on Bougainville at a point where they were least expected, forcing the enemy to struggle across jungle terrain in an attempt to dislodge the Americans.  Within two months, the Allies had established a defensive perimeter and had turned Bougainville's Empress Augusta Bay into a naval base. Although the fighting continued for six months, the Allies were victorious, paving the way for General Douglas MacArthur's return to the Philippines.  "It was a masterful attack plan," says Kodera. "While the Marines raided Choiseul, a nearby island, American bombers softened the defenses at Bougainville in preparation for Operation Cherryblossom. I purposely painted the light dawning over their efforts, to give the impression of hope and accomplishment which followed months of difficult fighting."

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Hitting the Kwai

Countersigned by prisoners of war Charles D. Mott and Kyle O. Thompson; and B-24 pilot and co-pilot Carl H. Fritsche and Duane R. Jordan

In reality, there was no bridge over the river Kwae Noi. There were two bridges, however at nearby Kanchanaburi, which prisoners of war were forced to build and rebuild at a cost of many lives, and Allied Air Forces were ordered to destroy by flying low through anti-aircraft fire while trying to hit a target which resembled "the thin edge of a knife blade."  With this limited edition fine art print, noted aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera brings to fruition years of research into the truth behind a classic movie. His evocative depiction of a B-24 is countersigned by two of the men who were ordered to destroy the bridges as well as two of the men forced to build them - and accompanied by a railway artifact collected at the Kanchanaburi Bridge as well as a Kodera drawing of the fictional, cinematic Kwai River bridge.

CRAIG KODERA
Last to Fight

12" x 24"

Countersigned by Lee Kendall, pilot of "Lady in the Dark"

"The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first U.S. aircraft designed specifically as a night fighter," says well-known aviation artist and American Airlines first officer Craig Kodera, "and this P-61B was credited with the last two aerial kills of the Second World War." "Lady in the Dark was the most famous Black Widow of the 548^th Night Fighter Squadron," Kodera says. Her nose art included a cat carrying a flashlight and a gun (the squadron's emblem) and the lady herself-a blonde who made quite a contrast against the fighters black paint.  The P-61B flew its missions after dark, but it was often launched at sunset, a fact Kodera used to his advantage. "I wanted to show the aircraft at its best," he says. "The colors on the horizon, on the plane, and in the moon make the image majestic and mysterious."

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Lonely Flight to Destiny

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Looking for Nagumo

Countersigned by Jewell "Jack" H. Reid

Following his stirring tribute to the Doolittle Raiders, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, American Airlines First Officer and respected aviation artist Craig Kodera now immortalizes another vital moment in the World War II air war.

CRAIG KODERA
The Lost Squadron

Countersigned by Brad McManus and Roy Shoffner

In July of 1942, as America was making every effort to enter the air war raging over Europe, a pair of B-17 Flying Fortresses departed from the U.S. in formation with six brand-new Lockheed P-38 Lightnings for Operation Bolero. En route to England, the tiny armada became hopelessly lost in the frost-filled skies. Running low on fuel, they were forced to land on Greenland's frozen tundra.  Miraculously, all of the crew survived the belly landings on the ice. Even more miraculously, one of the aircraft was recovered some fifty years later from under some two hundred feet of ice. Noted aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera pays homage to the once-young warriors in his poignant depiction of the men and machines of The Lost Squadron - which is countersigned by Brad McManus, who piloted one of the P-38s, and Roy Shoffner, Leader of the Lost Squadron recovery expedition.

CRAIG KODERA
Memphis Belle & Dauntless Dotty - Suite

Countersigned by Colonel Robert K. Morgan

Now you can share Robert K. Morgan's experiences in piloting two of World War II's most famous planes on two of the war's most important missions.  Memphis Belle and Dauntless Dotty is a suite of "Steel Sirens" by noted aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera. Both prints are counter-signed by Bob Morgan, and the suite is accompanied by a VHS video copy of Lieutenant Colonel William Wyler's 1944 documentary chronicling the final mission of the Memphis Belle. Wyler, director of Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur, was actually on the mission with his camera crew.  "Everybody in the know who hears the name 'Bob Morgan' immediately thinks 'Memphis Belle' maintains Craig Kodera. "That's a given. Morgan flew the Memphis Belle, the first airplane which finished the required 25 missions over Europe. But what most people, myself included, didn't know was that Bob continued his career through the rest of the war. After he finished his missions in Europe with the 8^th Air Force, he went over for training with the 20^th Air Force in the Pacific."  There Morgan completed another historic flight as aircraft commander of the Dauntless Dotty, the lead plane in the first group of B-29's in the Pacific. "He flew under the command of Curtis LeMay, whom many know as the father of strategic bombing," Kodera explains. "Bob took part in the first mission over the Japanese home island since the Doolittle Raid in 1942. That was 1944, when we finally went back, and Dauntless Dotty was number one in the squadron and on the flight."  Soar halfway across the world with two famous planes as Craig Kodera honors Morgan, Belle, and Dotty.

CRAIG KODERA & WILLIAM PHILLIPS
The Men Who Brought the Dawn

CRAIG KODERA
A Moment's Peace

This moving portrait of Supermarine Spitfire Mark 1's soaring through the clouds at sunrise commemorates the Battle of Britain on its fiftieth anniversary. The eloquent words of an English RAF Flight Lieutenant best capture the tone of the times and the nature of those who put their lives on the line during one of history's darkest hours:  "Thinking now of those days, I find that what remains most clearly in my memory is not the sweating strain of the actual fighting, not the hurried meals, the creeping from bed at dawn, not even the loss of one's friends; but rather those odd stolen moments of peace in the middle of all the pandemonium - the heat haze lying lazily over the airfield while we sat. waiting to take off; that curiously lovely moment of twilight after the last Spitfire had landed, after the last engine had been switched off, and before the first night fighter took to the air, the first searchlight split the darkness and the first wail of the siren was heard again - the moment when the evening lay spread out against the sky, giving for an instant a mocking glimpse of stillness and peace before night fell suddenly like a curtain and the whole hideous cacophony of war broke out afresh.  But above all, the thing which remains most clearly imprinted on my memory is the spirit which then existed - the same spirit which inspired everybody from the Station Commander to the lowest aircraft hand. For that was the first trial, the first flush of battle, and it was a great hour."

CRAIG KODERA
Moonlight Intruders

Two Grumman A-6A Intruders take off from the U.S.S. Enterprise and head for North Vietnam. These flyers, from Attack Squadron VA-35, are called the Black Panthers. Tonight they're on the prowl.  As the aircraft draw near the coast, they douse navigation lights and rotating beacons. They also turn off their radar identifier, signaling the home carrier that they've reached the coast. Using sophisticated track and search radar systems, the bombardier/navigator guides the Intruders to their ground target.  "Stephen Coonts' book, Flight of the Intruder, inspired me to paint the A-6A," says Craig Kodera. "On this night in 1968, tropical rain has given way to moonlight. Capable of operating at night and in all weathers, the A-6A faces enemy radar, anti-aircraft guns and SAMs. Time and again, the A-6 series proved indispensable to Naval Air Tactics."

CRAIG KODERA
Only One Survived

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Pacific Morning: Black Sheep on the Prowl

Countersigned by LtCol John F. Bolt, USMC (Ret), Col Edwin A. Harper, USMC (Ret), BGen Bruce J. Matheson, USMC (Ret), Col H. Allen McCartney, USMC (Ret)

CRAIG KODERA
Scaring the Cows - Poster

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Springtime Flying in the Rockies

Pilot and aviation artist Craig Kodera captures a Boeing P-12E on maneuvers over the spring snows of the Rocky Mountains.  Of Springtime Flying in the Rockies, says Kodera, "I had only to draw from my uncle's experiences. He was a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps in the '30s, when pilots were being led by such famed captains as Eaker, Arnold and LeMay. The Army gave you a place to live and $75 a month - practically a fortune during the Depression. And of course, the Army gave you the privilege of flying the biplane, our great defender of the skies. My uncle and his fellow pilots remembered World War I as if it were yesterday; they realized the world was only taking a breather from conflict, and when World War II began, they were ready. My uncle's experiences became mine: I express those magical times of exciting flying through my art. I hope the viewer of this piece, too, can experience the romance of open cockpit flying, smell the oil and leather, and thrill to the freedom of the skies."

CRAIG KODERA
Stratojet Shakedown

Countersigned by Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets, USAF, Retired

This sleek B-47 Stratojet bomber was the most immediate answer for the dawning jet age and the strategic air defense of the United States. Counter-signer Paul W. Tibbets, revered pilot of the Red Gremlin and Enola Gay during World War II, served as the B-47 project officer and Air Force test pilot.  "I loved that airplane," he says. "My favorite place to fly this silent and powerful plane was up top - dodging those big thunder busters! Taking her through all that turbulence was some of the most fun I ever had in an airplane. The wings would twist and flap, absorbing all the stress without so much as a complaint."  Now, American Airlines First Officer and respected aviation artist Craig Kodera honors the jet and celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Strategic Air Command, by capturing the scene as only an experienced flier can.

CRAIG KODERA
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Countersigned by General James H. Doolittle, Colonel Dean Davenport, Captain Charles L. McClure, and Corporal David J. Thatcher

On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25's took off from the USS Hornet and made the perilous flight to Tokyo Bay. "Ted Lawson and his crew were on the sixth aircraft to be launched from the carrier," says aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera, "and the title of this piece comes from Ted. There's a passage in his book, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, in which he actually said 'We only spent thirty seconds over Tokyo.'"

CRAIG KODERA
This is No Drill

Countersigned by Brigadier General Kenneth M. Taylor (Ret.) and Lieutenant Commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Zenji Abe

The Greenwich Workshop is proud to present aviation artist and professional pilot Craig Kodera's tribute to the Americans who got airborne on the "date which will live in infamy."  More than a thrilling image of a lone P-40B and Japanese Val, this special limited edition fine art print is countersigned by Brigadier General USAF (Ret.) Kenneth Taylor, the pilot pictured, and Zenji Abe, a Lieutenant Commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who took part in the raid.  To make the limited edition even more historic, each print is accompanied by an exciting video in The Greenwich Workshop Living Canvas series, capturing the pilots at the signing ceremony, and other fascinating events during the Admiral Nimitz Foundation symposium commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The result is a work of art of historic importance and artistic value.

CRAIG KODERA
This is No Time to Lose an Engine

This Is No Time to Lose an Engine! This sardonic understatement by respected aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera commemorates the men who flew "the Hump," the air route over the Himalayas in World War II's China-Burma-India theater. That air lane was approximately five hundred mile of unpredictable weather and treacherous winds stretching from India, over Burma, to supply the Allied Forces in China. From December of 1942 to V-J day in 1945, some 721,700 tons of supplies were carried over the Himalayas in more than 150,000 individual missions.

CRAIG KODERA
Tiger's Bite

It is September of 1942 over the Aleutian Islands, and a P-40E has just taken a "tiger's bite" out of a Rufe-a float-equipped Zero fighter. This is just one incident in what has become known as "the forgotten war." Started as a diversionary attack by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto-to turn American attention from Midway, the true focus of enemy forces-it failed to accomplish its intended purpose.  It will never be forgotten by the men who fought there, however, and it is for them that aviation artist and American Airlines First Officer Craig Kodera created Tiger's Bite. "The importance of the battle for the Aleutians cannot be underestimated," the artist maintains. "Those islands were the only thing standing between the mainland and the Japanese."

CRAIG KODERA
Voyager: The Skies Yield

Countersigned by the Voyager's pilots, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager

On December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager squeezed into the phone booth-sized cockpit of Voyager in man's first attempt to circumnavigate the globe without refueling. Voyager, which weighed only 2,500 pounds empty and 10,500 pounds fully fueled, was the culmination of a dream that began in 1981.  Voyager was not the work of government. Bert Rutan, Dick Rutan's younger brother, designed the special aircraft, which was then built by volunteers from other aviation projects. Several manufacturers provided parts and materials.  Cramped in a tiny space, buffeted by winds and storms and facing dwindling fuel supply, Voyager's pilots flew on and returned to Edwards Air Force Base nine days after setting out, making their dream reality and setting a record with the 26,000 mile flight.  Avitaion artist Craig Kodera says, "Voyager: The Skies Yield depicts day three of the flight. Typhoon Marge, a 600-mile wide storm, ominously blocks their path, but Voyager succeeds in beating the storm by turning south and breaking into clear weather. Two people alone, a man and a woman, face the challenge of nature head-on and defy all obstacles in their path. Dick Rutan's and Jeana Yeager's flight on Voyager did as much for the human spirit as it did for aviation."