The Eagle and The Bear | Kilofolio.com

"The Eagle and The Bear"

A personal design and artwork project, this homage to a storied aircraft pilot and restorer highlights one of his greatest and most fascinating creations.

As communications technology ironically makes interpersonal relations less personal, what started as an artistic ambition resulted in something of a social renaissance for me, as writing to family and old friends has unlocked a special kind of joy I didn’t realize I was missing. What follows is a brief account of my journey to-date.

Background

Dan McCue is something of a local legend in the New England aviation community, a passionate and dedicated airshow pilot, aircraft restorer, and aviation historian. Over his long and storied career he’s owned and flown dozens of unique aircraft from wood-and-canvas biplanes to WWII warbirds to stunt jets, and everything in between—recently getting his helicopter certification just in time for his 80th birthday. Having worked on a few pieces of design and artwork for other aviation collectors I thought it was high time Dan’s fascinating legacy was celebrated, starting with one of his most iconic projects: “The Eagle and the Bear” Yak-11.

Designed in the mid 1940’s as a trainer by the Soviet Yakovlev design bureau, in 1956(?) this particular Yak-11 was built by Let in Czechoslovakia for the Egyptian Air Force. After being retired in 1985, it was acquired (along with a few dozen more) by Jean-Baptiste Salis in France before being sold to Dan in 1987. After being painstakingly disassembled, shipped across the Atlantic, and reassembled, Dan’s pièce de résistance was to install a Pratt & Whitney R-2000 engine into the Soviet airframe. Shortly afterwards, hosting Dan and the Yak at an airshow, Pratt & Whitney gave the plane it’s signature nickname “The Eagle and The Bear” to symbolize its fusion of Soviet and American technology and ingenuity just as the Berlin Wall fell.

The Design

Being a keen student of heraldry, the eagle and bear motif was a wonderful starting point for the artwork. Beginning with an ink and marker drawing I’d previously done of the Yak, I spent some time digging through heraldic representations of aquiline and ursine forms to find the right poses to frame and flank the iconic plane, with much finagling of wings, legs, and heads to fit the available space. The original badge for the project created by Pratt & Whitney depicted the animals exchanging olive branches and downwards-facing arrows to symbolize peace and cooperation, hence olive branches became an integral part of the piece. After recreating the period-accurate P&W and Yakovlev logos as the finishing touches for the back, I turned my attention to the chest logo.

After initially trying out a number of designs involving various combinations of the two flags, I shifted my focus to a more personal emblem to represent Dan: his faithful canine companion and copilot Percy. Bedecking him in classic AN-6530 aviator goggles and a scarf with his wiry hair streaming in the wind, Percy became a perfectly fitting (if slightly cheeky) mascot for Dan and decades of aviation passion. This project has been a labor of love to pay homage to an incredible man and his multifaceted career as a pilot, pioneer, and ardent enthusiast for well over a half-century—and hopefully only the beginning of the stories I can tell.