The Artist

Lou Drendel

“A Lifetime of Aviation Art” on the home page tells about my professional career in aviation and aviation art. On the personal side, I have been married to my beautiful wife Carol for 58 years. We have 3 children and 7 grandchildren. We retired to Florida in 2003 when Carol convinced me to buy a 1926 historic home in the historic Venice community. I am an avid golfer (I can still shoot my age) and I divide my time between writing, painting, and golf. I have not flown an airplane since 2006, and yes… I still miss it!

I have been drawing and painting airplanes for as long as I can remember. This fascination with airplanes, particularly military airplanes, was fostered by my dad, who built solid models of combat airplanes during World War II. Most of this sizeable collection was hung from wires that crisscrossed the ceiling of my bedroom. My last waking moments were often spent gazing at the lines and angles that defined these classic airplanes, and the sun always came up with glancing rays of light shimmering on their wings and fuselages. It was a most effective and lasting form of brainwashing, leading to a lifetime of deep interest in airplanes, particularly military airplanes.

My family has no great artistic tradition. The only other artists in my family (that I am aware of) were my aunt, who was serious about her art, and my mother, who was not. But my earliest memories literally are of trying to draw and color airplanes. The desire to create pictures has always burned brightly, equaling my attraction to airplanes.

This desire was matched almost equally by the desire to fly. My favorite childhood books always starred aeronautical heroes. While most of my contemporaries immersed themselves in sports, I spent my time in the library devouring military history. When I read “Those Devils in Baggy Pants”, the World War II chronicle of the 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment, I knew I had to become a Paratrooper. Three years in the 82nd Airborne Division gave me an appreciation for the appeal of calculated risk……and a set of Senior Parachutist Wings.

My aeronautical passion was briefly sidetracked into the world of sports car racing when I bought my first Corvette and then met my future wife. Two years of road racing, and one wedding later, I was sans Corvette and getting serious about painting airplanes. Soon enough, I was also serious about flying them……but not before a return to falling out of them. Carol and I joined a skydiving club and spent one summer with the Midwest Skydiving Club. Fortunately for us, the primary jump plane pilot got his instructor rating that summer and offered to teach any interested skydivers to fly.

The article shown here appeared in the AUTOPILOT magazine. It featured a picture I took during the opening maneuver of the 1997 Chicago Air & Water Show. My Pentax 3000 with 20mm lens was mounted on top of the glareshield, with a cable release running to my throttle hand so that I could fire off pix as I flew the six-ship loop. This was the best of the 15 frame sequence.

Skydiving in the early sixties was a chancy deal. The parachutes were mostly military surplus, round high porosity canopies, which we modified for maneuverability by removing panels … thus, increasing the descent rate. I noticed that most of my skydiving buddies had suffered various injuries as a result. After I suffered a separated shoulder, it was not a difficult decision to give up falling out of airplanes in favor of staying in them.

I earned a Private Pilot certificate in 1965, my Commercial in 1966, and started aerobatic instruction that same year. By 1968 I had logged over 500 hours. But I had also gotten serious about painting airplanes and was soon promoting publication. The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine published an eight-page feature on a series of paintings I had done depicting the Air War in Vietnam. The Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society also published several of my works.

Braniff Captain, aviation author, and publisher Len Morgan had become a regular correspondent, and when I suggested that he publish a book on the Vietnam air war, using my illustrations, he responded that I should write and illustrate the book and he would publish it. “The Air War in Vietnam” was published in 1968. It was followed by “Aircraft of The Vietnam War”, in 1970. In early 1972, I traveled to Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field for the USAF Art program. This trip was the basis of several paintings which are in the USAF Art Collection.

Timeline of Events

1972

My First Book

I met Jerry Campbell, owner, and publisher of Squadron/Signal Publications, in 1972. We established an enduring relationship. My first book for Squadron/Signal was “F-4 Phantom in Action”, published in 1972. It was followed at regular intervals by over 50 more books. (See Books by Lou Drendel.)

All this authoring and painting (not to mention raising a family) had led to a moratorium on flying, but when a beat-up T-34 showed up at our airport, and I found out that it was being sold to a just-forming flying club, I took an orientation ride and my interest in flying was instantly rekindled.

1972

1974

The Mentor Flyers was Founded

The T-34 Mentor is one of the nicest flying airplanes ever built. It was designed to have the feel of a 1950’s jet fighter. The controls are relatively light and well-balanced, and it is fast enough and comfortable enough to make it a good cross-country airplane. And it was fully aerobatic! The Mentor Flyers was founded in 1974 as a fifteen-member group, but we did not fill the membership until the early 80s. During those early years we spent more time on restoration than we did on flying.

1974

Late 1970s

River Rats

My early books chronicled the air war in Vietnam, highlighting the missions flown by fighter pilots against the densest air defenses in the history of warfare. In recognition of these efforts, I was inducted into the “Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, aka: “River Rats”….a singular honor, since membership had been restricted to those who had flown missions into this hellfire area.

Late 1970s

1980's

Experimental Aircraft Association

The early 80s also saw the popularization of civilian formation flying. I was an early member of the national T-34 Association and quickly became a formation flying addict. The T-34 Association soon set the standard for large precision formation groups at the annual convention of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh.

1980's

Co-Authored Formation Flight

A major part of this rise to formation prominence was the publication of our manual “Formation Flight”. I co-authored and illustrated the manual, and it has since been reprinted 3 times. “Formation Flight” was adopted by all civilian warbird groups sanctioned by the FAA to fly formation in airshow airspace.

1980's

1988

The Lima Lima Flight Team

Weekly formation practices soon began to expand the envelope of maneuvers, and within a few years we developed into a precision team, capable of formation aerobatics equaling the jet teams in the range and complexity of maneuvers. The Lima Lima Flight Team has performed in front of hundreds of millions of spectators, from coast-to-coast and border-to-border since 1988.

Three years ago, I accepted a commission to produce a series of paintings for American Flyers website, the national company which provides flight training for Private, Commercial, Instrument, and Instructor ratings. This series of paintings covers virtually the full spectrum of aviation history.

It was while I was developing the “famous aviators” series for American Flyers that I created the technique of “ghosting” the image of the aviator in the background, with his airplane in the foreground of the picture. This technique has provided the basis for most of the commissions I have undertaken for pilots… famous or otherwise.

1988

1989

Elected to the Board of Directors

I was elected to the Board of Directors of the T-34 Association in 1980 and have served as President since 1992. I also served a stint on the EAA Warbirds of America board, from 1989-1994. My designs for the formation flying qualification patches are used by all civilian groups.

As interest in civilian formation grew, we developed a core of formation pilots in our flying club, the Mentor Flyers. This core group eventually began to acquire their own airplanes and by the mid-80s, we had six T-34s locally.

1989

2003

Retired to Florida

Dividing time between golf and writing and painting. Produced more books for Squadron/Signal Publications and subsequently began the “Illustrated” series of books, published by Aviation Art, Inc

2003