A very nice cover by Edward I. Valigursky for Ballantine Books’ 1967 edition of Cecil F. Rawnsley and Robert Wright’s Night Fighter, bearing the artist’s surname at the lower right…
Though the depicted aircraft are (in theory) Mosquito night fighters of Number 85 Squadron RAF, close (well … very, very close) inspection of the plane at the lower left reveals that it bears the code letters “ED I” on its fuselage. Not so coincidentally, this matches the initials of the artist’s given and middle names: “Edward Ignatius”! In reality, the squadron code carried by No. 85 Squadron’s warplanes was “VY”.
Edward Valigursky was an enormously productive and versatile artist, his oeuvre encompassing the fields of military aviation, space exploration, and adventure. As for the realm of science fiction, during the mid to late 1950s his work frequently appeared as cover art for Amazing Stories and Fantastic, interior art, and, the covers of Ace paperbacks.
Flight Lieutenant Cecil Frederick “Jimmy” Rawnsley
References
Hess, William N., The Allied Aces of World War II, Arco Publishing Inc., New York, N.Y., 1966
Flight Lieutenant Cecil Frederick “Jimmy” Rawnsley, at Wikipedia
Flight Lieutenant C.F. Rawnsley (portrait), at “The Royal Air Force 1939-1945, Vol. I: The Fight at Odds”, at ibiblio.org/hyperwar
Number 85 Squadron Royal Air Force, at Wikipedia
Edward I. Valigursky
Biography, at Pulp Artists
Biography, by Arnie Fenner, at Muddy Colors
Examples of his science fiction art, at 3rdART
Some GGA (“Good Girl Art”), at Grapefruit Moon Gallery
2018 08 31 – 2018 10 14