How an Aviation Art Career Was Born

By Mike Machat

Originally from Long Island, New York, noted aviation artist, author, and historian Mike Machat served in the U.S. Air Force and with the National Security Agency before relocating to Los Angeles and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach. He was hired by the Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a technical illustrator, and advanced through the ranks to become a Staff Artist and corporate representative.

In 1984, Machat established his own aviation art studio and was elected first president of the American Society of Aviation Artists. He served for 25 years as a senior flight-rated artist for the U.S. Air Force Documentary Art Program, and his award-winning murals grace the Bob Hope Airport terminal building in Burbank, CA, the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards AFB, and the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, CA.

As an aviator, Machat holds an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate, and has logged more than 2,000 flights in sailplanes. He has flown in nearly 250 different types of aircraft and was the first Air Force Artist to fly in the Rockwell B-1B Lancer and Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Mike has four paintings in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum as well as eight paintings in the Pentagon. He has also written four best-selling books on aviation history.

Machat describes his career as “a dream come true, and then some,” fully realizing that his many opportunities to fly in high-performance military aircraft and work on art assignments with the true legends of aviation history over a 40-year period came about strictly because he was an artist. In Machat’s own words, here’s the story of how it all began.

The date was Sunday, July 22, 1956, a day that changed my life forever. I only know that date because it is written on a certificate issued to passengers who flew aboard inaugural flights of Eastern Air Line’s brand new Douglas DC-7B. Dubbed the “Golden Falcon,” these aircraft were introduced to upgrade the airline’s image from a staid businessman’s conveyance to a true First Class luxury carrier during the absolute zenith of the piston era of air travel.

Photo taken by Machat’s Father while boarding an Eastern DC-7B Golden Falcon in Miami shows registration number “N801D” on its tail fin.

That Sunday, my father returned from a business trip to Florida, flying home to New York’s Idlewild Airport (now JFK) on an Eastern DC-7B. The entire flight crew signed the certificate, a treasured keepsake to this day. Another souvenir from that trip was a 16”x 20” color lithograph showing the “Golden Falcon” majestically flying over Miami Beach. As a fledgling artist, I was speechless, and simply in awe seeing this incredible image.

I was astonished by the precision of this artwork. The lettering was perfect and the detail seemed beyond the ability of mere mortals. My Dad explained that the painting was created by an artist who worked for the company that built the airplane. His signature was simply “g. akimoto,” and his office was in the Douglas factory in Santa Monica, California. His job? Design and produce paintings of aircraft to show Douglas customers (airlines and the military as I later learned) exactly what their airplanes would look like.

Rendering by Douglas Staff Illustrator George Akimoto depicts an Eastern DC-7B flying over Miami Beach and the Fontainebleau Hotel in 1956.

Staring wide-eyed at that litho at the impressionable age of nine, I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to be an ‘airplane artist’ just like Mr. Akimoto, and maybe if I was lucky, I’d get to work in a big airplane factory out in California. At age 12, I sent a colored pencil drawing of the DC-8 jetliner to Mr. Donald W. Douglas with a letter explaining that someday I hoped to work for him. The thoughtful reply, along with a bevy of company photos and lithos, came as quite a surprise.

After years of art school studies, an enlistment in the Air Force, and countless hours of drawing and painting to develop my craft, I hired into the Presentations Department at Douglas Long Beach in June 1977. There I met now-Chief Illustrator George Akimoto, and eventually collaborated with him on an ad showing Douglas-built Navy aircraft for AVIATION WEEK Magazine. Another memorable experience was being assigned to fly in a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels aerial demonstration squadron prior to painting the team’s 35th Anniversary brochure cover.

One day, while sorting through photo files in the company archives, I found a series of black-and-white 8x10 prints showing an Eastern DC-7B rolling-out of the final assembly building in Santa Monica in 1955, plus shots showing that aircraft being completed on the Douglas ramp. Its tail number was “N801D” – the very same airplane my Father flew aboard in July 1956! Finding those photographs confirmed my career path, and became living proof that when you are truly inspired by greatness, dreams can come true. EPILOGUE:

Photo discovered in the Douglas archives in 1977 showing the actual aircraft Machat’s father flew on in 1956, being outfitted on the Santa Monica ramp. Photo taken by Machat’s Father while boarding an Eastern DC-7B Golden Falcon in Miami shows registration number “N801D” on its tail fin.

After a 40-year career in aviation, Mike Machat now serves as Curator and Historian for the Museum of Flying at Santa Monica Airport, which houses rare original artifacts and displays from the Douglas plant once located on the North side of that airport. Aside from conceiving and designing new exhibits and displays for the Museum, Machat painted three 10-ft. by 20-ft. murals depicting the famed Douglas “DC” airliners, Douglas Navy aircraft aboard the USS Forrestal, and record-breaking Douglas ‘X-Planes.’

A copy of the letter Machat received from Mr. Douglas in 1959 when he was 12 years old adorns the wall below one of his murals. The address on the company letterhead reads “General Office, Santa Monica, CA,” on Ocean Park Blvd., a location less than one-half mile from the Museum of Flying today. I guess you could say Machat’s notable career has come full circle.

Machat’s concept rendering depicts a McDonnell Douglas KC-10 tanker refueling an F-15 Strike Eagle. Neither aircraft had flown yet when he produced this painting for the Air Force.

In a modern-day iteration of George Akimoto’s DC-7 over Miami Beach, Machat illustrated an Air Canada Airbus A319 over Niagara Falls, one of a series of airliner paintings he produced for Airbus Industrie in the 1990s.