“Angel of Guadalcanal” — Solomon Islands (1943, WWII Pacific)

Pilot Kenji Nakamura flew reconnaissance missions over Guadalcanal with a subtle pinup art design painted on his aircraft: a serene winged pinup girl, styled as a delicate pinup illustration rather than typical aggressive nose art.

The pinup model inspiration behind the image gave the aircraft a softer, almost ethereal presence. During one mission, Nakamura was forced to crash-land on a reef after anti-aircraft fire.

He survived undetected for hours. Fellow pilots later joked that the pinup portrait made the plane look like wreckage even before it hit the water.