ARTIST: Jack Fellows (Washington, born 1941) NAME: Illustration - 1903 Wright Flyer MEDIUM: acrylic on board CONDITION: Excellent. No visible inpaint under UV light. SIGHT SIZE: 16 x 14 inches / 40 x 35 cm BOARD SIZE: 18 x 16 inches / 45 x 40 cm SIGNATURE: lower left NOTE: This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 37c Wright Flyer stamp issued March 28, 2003. After years of exhaustive and highly innovative research using biplane kites, personally-crafted wind-tunnels and full-scale gliders (during which time they demonstrated their brilliant ability to visualize the behavior of a machine not yet constructed), Orville and Wilbur Wright created their first powered flyer. At about 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903, Orville guided the flyer into the air and successfully flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. The flyer, launched from a 60-foot-long monorail track, made three more flights that day, traveling distances of 175, 200 and finally 852 feet (all four flights were witnessed by five local citizens). For the first time in history, a heavier-than-air machine had achieved powered and sustained flight under complete pilot control. PROVENANCE: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. CATEGORY: antique vintage painting AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US SKU#: 117596 US Shipping $49 + insurance. BIOGRAPHY: Jack's career as a practicing professional artist spans a period of over thirty-five years, both as a commercial artist and a fine art painter. His intense interest in the history of the air war in the Pacific led to his origination of the Cactus Air Force Art Project, dedicated to the collecting and archiving of historical data relating to that period. Most of his work today illustrates military aviation in the Pacific. "Jack is, in my opinion, the foremost artist in the world doing Pacific WWII aviation art." Larry J. Hickey, Pres. International Research & Publishing Corp, Dec. 16, 2003. As an artistic counterpoint to Jack's military history illustrations, is his work as a fine art painter, focusing on figurative and landscape subjects, and occasionally, maritime subjects. Above all else, he favors the opportunity to paint landscape subjects in Europe, particularly around the Mediterranean. He has been invited to show his landscape work at the prestigious Peppertree Ranch Art Show in California, May, 2004. Jack's work has been widely collected, in the United States and abroad, in museum collections, and by private collectors. He has won many awards, over the years, most recently, the R.G. Smith Award for Excellence in Naval Aviation Art (2004), and is the originator and primary financial backer of the Capt. Duane Whitney Martin-Vietnam Airwar Award for Artistic Excellence, awarded annually by the American Society of Aviation Artists. He was president of the American Society of Aviation Artists 1995-97, is a Life Member of the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters, a member of the USAF Art Program, and guest lecturer, Museum of Flight-Visiting Aviator Series. He has approximately one-hundred postage-stamp designs to his credit and most of his work is available, published in a variety of formats, in both open and limited edition.