It is amazing how vehicles, architecture, art, and music can define a specific era.  For me, airplanes have the ability to define an era like no other vehicle because often the design is reminiscent of the current artistic trends and it also showcases of the leading edge of technology at the moment.

Let’s take for example my favorite general aviation aircraft, the Spartan Executive.  The Spartan Executive’s beautiful sweeping lines and bold polished metal define the best of the art deco era. Glamorous and stately the Spartan Executive sits poised on any ramp, and this was the idea of art in this era.  Climb aboard the Spartan, and you are ushered back to a time of glitz and glamor and the ultimate in comfort for the time. Once owned by the likes of Howard Hughes and J. Paul Getty the Spartan Executive served as a symbol of opulence.

Unfortunately only 34 were built, and a handful survive today, but I found this beautiful example at the Reno Air Races this year and was delighted to have had the opportunity to have a dramatic sky to highlight the stateliness of this magnificent aircraft.

I used the Hasselblad H4D60 for this image

Spartan Executive