Charles H. Hubbell
1899-1971
Excerpts from Aviation’s Pictorial Historian by G. Reiss, Charles
H. Hubbell 1899-1971 by B. Wilson
Charles Hubbell was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1899. As a boy of 10 he
became interested in aviation when a friend gave him an aeronautical magazine
and he became an avid model airplane builder. Before he completed high
school, he had designed and built many models as well as a man-sized glider.
He graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1923. He traded his early
paintings for flight time, soloing in 1925. He received CAA pilots License
number 9792.
Charles worked as a commercial artist for several years painting airplanes
mostly as a hobby as there was little demand for aviation art at that
time. Cliff Henderson, the director of the National Air Races had seen
Hubbell’s airplane paintings and had used them on his air race posters
and programs. Cliff arranged a meeting with Fred Crawford, Chairman of
Thompson Products, who sponsored the Thompson Trophy Races. This was the
famous unlimited closed course race that started in 1929.
Henderson suggested that Charles paint the winners each year for a calendar.
Fred Crawford agreed with great enthusiasm and sealed the deal with a
handshake. That started a 30-year project for Hubbell…painting airplanes
for Thompson.
The first calendar was produced in 1939 and consisted of the first nine
Thompson Trophy winners and four airliners. On each monthly picture, Hubbell
faithfully gave the details of the subject aircraft—its make and
type, specifications and performance data, engine and types. Each year
thereafter the calendars featured a theme along with a section of Hubbell’s
paintings. This panorama of aviation history continued through 1969 when
Charles retired, followed by an additional four years with a series called
the “Best of Hubbell”. The calendars would become the most
authentic and complete history of aviation ever to be assembled so beautifully.
Charles Hubbell was the world’s best-known artist-historian of
the early air age. He was a stickler for detail and he went to great lengths
to assure accuracy, not only for the aircraft, but the backgrounds as
well. He would traveled more than 65,000 miles in a single year to obtain
technical information to stamp his paintings with authenticity, and to
capture the clouds and terrain that set the mood of the many colorful
scenes depicted in his work.
During his association with TRW, Hubbell had created 32 calendars and
more than 375 individual oil paintings. His watercolors and drawings number
over 600. Hubbell’s paintings have hung in the white house, in museums,
palaces, libraries, and homes of countless thousands of aviation buffs
throughout the world.
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Sixteen early paper models that were constructed starting around 1913
by an aspiring fifteen year old aviation-minded young man who would become
a world renowned aviation artist.
Click on any of the images below for a better view.
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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A paper model by Charles Hubbell. |
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