Taylor was the first artist to paint a space shuttle
From Bully Hill Vineyards,
Forty-eight years ago on September 17, 1976 NASA unveiled the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first shuttle in the Space Shuttle program. Specifically built to be an atmospheric orbiter and used to conduct test flights, the craft never actually went into space but was essential to developing the shuttle program. The vessel was carried into low earth orbit and would launch from the back of a modified Boeing-747.
Walter S. Taylor was an avid aviation enthusiast and loved to paint in the “plein air” (real life) style. Walter started painting the Space Shuttle Columbia at Cape Canaveral as it sat on the launch pad before its launch in 1981. Walter became the first artist to paint the space shuttle from life. His painting caught the eye of NASA personnel and he became an official member of the NASA Art Team.
Walter continued to paint the Space Shuttle for the next few years and in 1983 NASA invited him to the Paris Air Show where they were going to fly the Space Shuttle Enterprise around Paris on the back of the modified Boeing-747.
Wanting to capture the moment, NASA put Walter in a T-39 Sabreliner which flew alongside the shuttle allowing him to draw it in real time. An amazing feat that no other artist on earth had previously experienced.
The moment was immortalized by a Bully Hill Sparkling Burgundy called “Mother Ship over Paris”. Bully Hill also released Space Shuttle Red, Space Shuttle White and Space Shuttle Rose. Some of Walter’s Space Shuttle paintings were exhibited at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in the 1980s.
