Celebrating nation's 250th birthday, Cradle of Aviation displays insignias from wartime

Somewhere over Iran, pilots from the two oldest squadrons in the U.S. Navy have flown combat sorties the past month as part of Operation Epic Fury.

One, Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-14, flies Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jets adorned with a black top hat. Using the call sign "Camelot," they are known in Navy circles as the "Tophatters." The other, Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-31, flies strike fighter jets adorned with the cartoon character Felix the Cat running while holding a lit bomb.

Known as the "Tomcatters," they use the call sign "Felix."

The two insignias date to the biplane era of military aviation: the first, to 1919; the second, to 1935.

Both are featured in a new exhibit called "Art at War" on view through Sept. 6 at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale.

On loan from the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in upstate Hammondsport, the exhibit includes 19 insignias that once adorned military airplanes, some as far back as World War I. Some are hand-painted on fabric cut from old biplanes; others, etched and rendered on small, cut sheets of aluminum taken from more modern aircraft. Each is the equivalent of a fraternity patch, a team mascot or logo, maybe a family crest or coat of arms and each, museum historians note, tells a story of the pilots, crews and squadron members that once designed them, embraced them — and, all too often, lived and died fighting with them.

"Certainly, the squadron insignia humanizes the whole process," Rod Leonhard, director of content at the Cradle, said last week. "It's a real look into a squadron and the lives of the men — and now, women — in these squadrons."

"To me, the interesting part is it's not just a painting somebody did," Cradle curator and historian Joshua Stoff said. "These were taken from actual military planes being scrapped. ... And they're part of a long tradition, one that continues to this day, with every squadron in the Air Force or Navy, and it speaks to the camaraderie, to the brotherhood."

Symbolic insignias

Some of the insignias are rudimentary, others more elaborate.

Ones from the World War I era come from old French and German military aircraft, manufactured by Salmson, Farman, Breguet, Nieuport, Fokker and the legendary aircraft maker SPAD — short for Société Pour l'Aviation et ses Dérivés. The later insignias are all from U.S. Navy and Air Force planes.

There's an insignia with a hound chasing a rabbit. And insignias featuring a crocodile, a parrot and even a ladybug — each within a red triangle. One insignia — a stork, feet clad in pontoons — was used by a seaplane squadron. Another, featuring a bird with binoculars, was from an observation unit.

A witch, riding a broom, adorned planes at the Squantum Naval Air Station, established in 1916 in Massachusetts. The base was located near Salem, home of the infamous witch trials. 

One, a round bomb with scowling eyes and a burning fuse, rides a falling torpedo. It calls to mind a scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 anti-war classic, "Dr. Strangelove" — rodeo cowboy-turned-Hollywood actor Slim Pickens, as U.S. Air Force Maj. T.J. (King) Kong, riding a live atom bomb dropped from a B-52.

Except, this artwork predates World War II. And, the Walt Disney Studios designed it.

The insignia of a fire-breathing dragon atop a torpedo once adorned planes of U.S. Navy Torpedo Squadron VT-3.

In the film "Midway," VT-3 squadron members were among the groups flying obsolete Douglas TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers in the attack on Japanese aircraft carriers in the June 4, 1942, Battle of Midway. Led by Lt. Cmdr. Lance E. "Lem" Massey, VT-3 targeted the carrier Hiryu.

Of 12 planes in the group, 10 were shot down at Midway, killing 21 of the 24 pilots and crew — Massey, among them.

Years of service

Since its inception in November 1919, the squadron has flown 23 different types of aircraft operated from 20 different aircraft carriers, the latest, in Operation Epic Fury, from the USS Abraham Lincoln. That insignia has adorned each of its planes since 1919.

And the Tomcatters?

Now operating from the USS Gerald R. Ford, the squadron saw action in World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq and now in Iran. And pilots who flew planes bearing that Felix insignia included the first Navy aviation Medal of Honor recipient in World War II, Lt. Cmdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, as well as Lt. Cmdr. John S. "Jimmy" Thach, who flew at Midway.

Charles Lindbergh flew a mission in a plane bearing the Felix insignia.

And the Grumman F-14 on display in the Cradle parking lot bears Felix the Cat.

"These young pilots, they have egos," Cradle exhibit manager and restoration shop manager Peter Truesdell said. "They want everybody to know who they are — the same way it was back in the day with knights. … And so these insignias, it means something. It's the continuum, the building of the longer story.

"You put that on the plane," Truesdell added, "it's no longer so generic. There's a history now."

Some of the insignias — and, those from other squadrons and even NASA spaceflight mission patches — are available for purchase in the museum gift shop.

Also at the Cradle is a showcase titled "Shaping the Future — Grumman Concept Art." It includes never-before-seen concept art — most, beautiful, full-color drawings and paintings of aircraft and spacecraft proposed by Grumman in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

There's early design studies of the F-14 Tomcat, as well as the Grumman-built lunar module. There are also designs for proposed Grumman fighter planes and even a Mars Excursion Module — proposed for what were to be manned Mars missions to follow the Apollo missions to the Moon.

"These exhibits," Cradle president Andy Parton said, "are part of our America 250 Celebration, examining the people, places, and innovations that shaped American aviation and aerospace — with Long Island at the center of that story."

As an intriguing aside, in 1909 Glenn Curtiss brought his Golden Flyer biplane to Hempstead Plains, the site of what would become the Mitchel Field complex now home to the Cradle of Aviation. That led to Long Island becoming the literal cradle of American aviation.

"The idea of going from Glenn Curtiss and his first flight here in 1909 to just 60 years later with Grumman-Bethpage building the lunar module that in 1969 put men on the moon?" Leonhard said. "That we went from frail, wooden machines to that, it's just incredible. These histories are all part of that."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.