Stan Stokes’ amazing career has taken him from the cockpit to the canvas, capturing the thrill and history of military aviation, and blends aviation, art, and unforgettable encounters with some of history’s most legendary figures. From painting Air Force One and flying with the Blue Angels to attending NASA, Flabob Airport, and Presidential Libraries, his work captures both the aircraft and the stories behind them.
Along the way, Stan has met pioneers like Burt and Dick Rutan, Mike Melvill, Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, Tammie Jo Shults, Steve Hinton, Mario Andretti, and Yogi Berra, and has shared moments with heroes like Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, Maj. Gen. Greg Feest, and Tuskegee Airmen Rusty Burns, and celebrities like William Shatner and Harrison Ford.
These highlights celebrate the planes, the pilots, the personalities, and the extraordinary experiences that have shaped a lifetime devoted to aviation and the art that preserves it.
Stan Stokes has had the extraordinary honor of meeting many of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen—men whose courage, skill, and determination helped change the course of history. These pioneering pilots and support crews not only flew thousands of missions during World War II, protecting bombers and challenging enemy forces, but also broke racial barriers in the U.S. military, leaving a lasting legacy of heroism, pride, and perseverance.
44 minutes into the 2022 hit movie Top Gun: Maverick, there is a hallway scene, and directly on the wall behind them is Stan’s painting honoring the “Centennial of US Naval Aviation”.
Mid 1983, Stan was invited to participate in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Golden Age of Flight Aviation Art Competition. The subject matter was limited to aircraft of the 1920’s and 30’s.
Stan gave it quite a bit thought and decided to give it a go. He remembered the old saying that “you can’t win if you don’t try”. There was a fellow that Stan knew who was a famous aviator in the 1930’s, Jimmie Mattern.
In 2004, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation commissioned Stan to create a massive mural honoring the “History of the Flying White House”. The mural was to be 120 feet long, 12 feet high with the entire canvas in a 90 degree arch. Stan’s good friend Robert J. Pond agreed to sponsor the entire cost of the mural.
Over the course of his career, Stan Stokes has not only captured incredible aircraft in his paintings but has also shared unforgettable moments with some of the most extraordinary figures in aviation, space, and beyond. From meeting Burt and…
Some photos of the Atlantis launch.
In the mid-1980’s, Stan was invited to become a NASA Art Program participant. This was set up to provide NASA with a great selection of artist with a wide array of styles to document the people and events of NASA.
In 2005, Stan was commissioned to create an original painting of The USS George HW Bush super carrier. At the time, the ship was still under construction, so a considerable amount of research was required before he could start the painting. With his vast knowledge of the Navy’s Nimitz Class Carriers, Stan quickly figured out how to make it quite accurate.
In 1981, I had the real pleasure of getting to know General James H. Doolittle. He was quite likely the most accomplished pilot of all time!
I have known and visited Flabob for most of my life. Well over a decade ago, I was asked to really get involved and to help bring the little airport into the future. The two people who had asked for my involvement were Jon Goldenbaum and John Lyon. Over the next few years, I would get to know both men as stellar individuals!
On the morning of December 10, 2005, I was nervously strapped into the USS Ronald Reagan’s COD - Carrier Onboard Delivery plane, a Grumman C-2 Greyhound. We had been circling around the ship awaiting our turn for a trap - a.k.a. a carrier landing. As a passenger In the C-2, you sit backwards and there are only two small porthole windows, but you are about to make a trap aboard a carrier, so it is fine!
On morning of November 12, 2001, the super carrier John C. Stennis, departed San Diego’s North Island . This was a quick turn-around. 9/11 had just happened 2 months earlier and Stennis was needed in the Arabian Sea. The schedule was tight enough that the air wing hadn’t been flown of to a shore base.
The ship’s Captain had called Stan requesting that he he get aboard the ship to take photos of the ship with a flight deck full of aircraft. Detail to be worked out later.
In October of 1981, Stan first met Bob and Josie Pond. Stan’s artwork was in a Gallery in Palm Desert, California. The Pond’s had stopped by and ask if it would be possible to arrange to meet Mr. Stokes. The meeting was set for the following day. Bob commissioned a couple of paintings and asked Stan if he would join them the next day to fly with them to see a TBM Avenger that Bob had just purchased.
...he hung out with the Blue Angel pilots and watched them perform two different practice sessions. He thought that it been a pretty fabulous day, but a day later, was asked to come back for a ride! Yes, an actual F/A-18B Blue Angels Hornet ride!
Stan has had a 20+ year association with the Presidential Airlift Group and Air Force One. He has found every one of them to be fantastic people—extremely focused on the mission of flying the President in the style that is expected and in…
