Bill Crump Photography and Vintage Airplane Prints

Bill Crump, born in Fort Worth Texas, grew up in west Texas in Fort Stockton, during the post-war era; a time when kids his age were closer to the heroes and the heroics of World War Two aviators. Bill loved their mission and machines. With his collection of aviation photography, Bill has paid a lasting visual tribute to those patriotic men and women who gallantly flew. 

Bill's love of aviation began when he was five years old with his first airplane ride. His pilot on that first flight was the son of his neighbors and life-long friend who later led NASA's Unmanned Space Craft Expeditions as its Director, responsible for landing the first spacecraft on the moon. In the early 1970's, Bill was invited to Harlingen, Texas to photograph WWII fighter aircraft for the Confederate Air Force. Though this would be Bill's first air-to-air shoot, it would be far from his last. For that first flight, Bill was in a WWII B-25, which was in the movie "CATCH 22". As the B-25 made altitude, Bill witnessed the aerial ballet of six enormous P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. "Those six P-47's were flying in close formation. I was amazed and it took a minute of my watching them that I remembered I was there to photograph them, not just to watch." From that time on, Bill was intrigued by air-to-air photography of airplanes. Historically it was wonderful being able to be a part of WWII aviation history.