Naval Aviation Monument Park opens at the Oceanfront

The Norwegian Lady Statue stands between two bronze statues that are part of the new Naval Aviation Monument Park at Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront. (Bill tiernan photos / the virginian-pilot)

By Cherise M. Williams
The Virginian-Pilot

Michael Maiden sculpts history in bronze.

At the Oceanfront’s new Naval Aviation Monument Park, three bronze statues tell the story of the Navy’s efforts to fly.

Maiden, a sculptor from Sandy, Ore., is in town for today’s dedication of the park at 25th Street and Atlantic Avenue.

Commissioned and paid for by the Hampton Roads Squadron of the Association of Naval Aviation, the $1.5 million monument depicts three eras of naval aviation.

It starts with Eugene Ely, who, in 1910 in the waters of Hampton Roads, was the first to fly off a ship’s deck.

The second depicts a World War II pilot and crewman racing out of a hatch to their aircraft.

The third portrays two modern-day pilots and a maintenance chief, including a woman with her foot on an empty bomb cart.

On Thursday, Maiden eyed the Ely sculpture with a Crest Kid’s smile. He was very careful, during the two-year project, to re-create Ely’s flight jacket and safety football helmet just as it is shown in a 1910 photo.

He wanted to get every detail right. “This is very, very important to a lot of people,” said Maiden, 55.

Re-creating life is what attracted Maiden to sculpting. He never outgrew playing with clay.

Maiden studied art and education at Central Washington State College, where he visited a sculptor’s studio and thought, “This is what I can do.”

After college, he enlisted in the Army National Guard, then taught art at a middle school for three years before his studio took flight.

“Those early days, by the way, were pretty challenging,” he said. “I could remember living on pizza and beer.”

Now, after 31 years in the business, Maiden operates one of the country’s largest art foundries, near Portland, Ore. His son, Jim, helps sculpt. His wife, Vicky, handles the foundry’s administrative affairs.

Before sculpting the Naval Aviation Monument, Maiden researched the subject in libraries and museums, and toured the aircraft carrier Midway in San Diego, which was commissioned in 1945 and served through Desert Storm. For inspiration, he hired models to pose in vintage clothing.

To create the statues, he started by carving foam blocks, then pressing oil-based clay to the foam and sculpting it. Next, Maiden made a rubber mold, and then a wax mold, and coated it with ceramic. He then melted out the wax, leaving a cavity shaped like the statues, and poured in the molten bronze, heated to 2,150 degrees.

Messes were made. Errors meant remolding those pieces. Arthritis in Maiden’s right hand bothered him. But 2,000 pounds of clay later emerged as larger-than-life statues.

Maiden also relied on his experiences as a licensed pilot of a Cessna 172 general aviation plane.

Because of his love of flying, Maiden particularly enjoys sculpting bald eagles and other aviation works, including a memorial at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state, dedicated in 2001.

His reputation caught the attention of Fred Metz, a retired rear admiral and member of the Hampton Roads Squadron of the Association of Naval Aviation. Metz helped select Maiden for the Virginia Beach project in 2004.

“He had the feeling of aviation,” Metz said.

Maiden’s statues now rest in a large plaza off the Boardwalk, behind the Norwegian Lady Statue. Another statue of a Navy homecoming is planned later.

On Thursday, Bill Dascher, a former Navy corpsman, marveled at the monuments with friend Phillip Marlowe, a former Marine. Both are 80-year-old World War II veterans. The two got up close to the statue.

“It looks so real,” said Dascher, admiring the sculpted weapons. “You expect to reach up and pull it out.”

That’s Maiden’s goal: to make his work appear lifelike and convincing. While the vets admired Maiden’s work, the sculptor stayed in the background, soaking in the praise.

“That’s the jury for me,” he said.

Reach Cherise M. Williams at (757) 222-5102 or cherise.williams@pilotonline.com.