Operation Haylift vintage style military aviation travel poster art by – Squadron Posters!
Operation Haylift–painting for CAP National Historical Journal, Fall 2021
This painting portrays Civil Air Patrol members of the Nebraska wing kicking hay bales out of a C-82 Flying Boxcar to starving cattle at a snowbound ranch below. The Great Plains Blizzard of 1949 left a snow-covered swath from Arizona to Wyoming leaving 40-foot-tall drifts that lasted for months.
The C-82A was first flown in 1944, with its initial delivery not until June 1945; as a result, only a few entered service before the end of the war. In the end, only 223 C-82As would be built, a small number relative to other wartime production cargo aircraft. Most were used for cargo and troop transport, although a few were deployed for paratroop operations or towing military gliders. A redesign rectifying the aircraft’s main deficiencies, made its debut in 1947. Its subsequent improved design would result in the 1949 rollout of the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.
Squadron Posters offers the world’s largest collection of Squadron Specific Art! Check out our stunning vintage style military aviation themed travel posters, honoring All Branches of Service. Our artwork not only represents aircraft, armored cavalry, or ships, it represents adventure and travel. This means we create posters featuring the Space Needle, New Orleans, the Golden Gate Bridge, Mt Rushmore and the National Mall. Of course, McChord AFB isn’t in Seattle but if you’re stationed there your adventure surely involves the Space Needle!
This is what makes Squadron Posters different–it’s about remembering where you’ve lived and what you’ve seen with a vintage themed travel poster. – Collect your travels and tell your story!












