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Record Breaker

Rick Herter creates his most impressive work: a 28,000-sq.-ft. mural depicting seminal moments in the evolution of flight

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Kalamazoo, MI-based muralist Rick Herter has devoted his life to conveying the pride of aviation history. Herter grew up on a Dowagiac, MI, farm that served as a navigation point for a neighboring flight school — which fueled his aviation fascination. His commissioned works stand in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Air Force Museum and Delta Airlines’ Atlanta headquarters. He’s also decorated the noses of fighter planes with replicas of vintage nose art.

Herter is in the midst of creating his most impressive work: a 28,000-sq.-ft. mural — roughly the size of three football fields — depicting seminal moments in the evolution of flight, which adorns the walls of Air Zoo (www.airzoo.org) aviation-history museum. The Guinness Book of World Records has designated the project the world’s largest indoor mural.

When Bob Ellis, Air Zoo’s executive director, first approached Herter six years ago about creating the mural, he provided a basic format: a timeline that captures every era in the history of flight. To do this, Herter used 400 gallons of Triangle Coatings’ (San Leandro, CA) oil-based paint and more than 200 brushes to portray the evolution of mankind’s airborne journeys from 1763’s hot-air balloon launch by France’s Montgolfier brothers to Space Shuttle explorations.

Herter said the experience he gained in developing grand-scale graphics, as a billboard painter in the ’70s and ’80s for Adams Outdoor Adv., proved invaluable for the task. He acknowledged that one of the biggest challenges of decorating such an enormous space is finding ways to maintain a dynamic color scheme. With the help of Tony Hendrick, Herter applied broad areas of color, which they clearcoated with a 2:1 mix of gloss- and flat-finish clearcoats, to provide a satiny sheen.

The museum began operation in 1979, and has grown from 14,000 to the current 200,000-sq.-ft. incarnation, which opened May 1 and houses 90 historic aircraft.

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