Sam Lyon’s latest, “Amelia’s Wheels,” was unveiled at this summer’s AirVenture.
“This is really the first woman I have used as subject matter in a painting,” Lyons said with a smile.
In fact, it was his wife, Mindy, who suggested Sam undertake a painting that celebrated women in aviation. Sam’s initial thought was to work with an image of Earhart with the Lockheed Electra that she disappeared in, but the more hopeful image of her successful Atlantic crossing in the Vega won out.
“It is a much more vibrant airplane,” he explained, adding that he has been to the National Air and Space Museum where the airplane is on display and had his photograph taken in front of it.
When you are doing a painting of a famous airplane, there’s a lot of research involved, he said. “I had several photographs to work off to make sure I got the colors and the markings right,” he said. “I had to fish around a little to find the right Lockheed logo for the tail.”
Lyon’s airplanes are quite detailed. In the Earhart picture, for example, the blades of grass are visible and in the corner there are “tiny little sheep,” said Lyons.
“She had intended to make it all the way to Paris, but she had some trouble with the airplane,” he said. “Her altimeter malfunctioned and there was a fuel leak in the cockpit so she found a big field and put it down. It turned out to be a sheep field. She lands and the owner comes up to her and asks, ‘Have you come far?’ and she says ‘I’ve come from America,’ which was probably a bit of a shock for him.”