Bottles and decanters that celebrate the best in aviation history. Plus, win some amazing prizes through our exclusive Avgeekery contest.
Several years ago, Special Tribute Spirits (STS) began producing “select batch distilled liquors uniquely bottled to celebrate our rich aviation heritage.” Spend some time with the staff at Special Tribute Spirits, and it becomes clear that this venture as not as much about their customized bottles or the premium liquors. It is all about them sharing their passion for aviation.
Special Tribute Spirits offers series of bottles with features that celebrate aviation from the past and today. They create each bottle by hand, fitting them with custom details like aircraft-skin type metal labels, signatures of pilots, images from the featured aircraft, and filling them with premier liquors.
Avgeekery.com is joining with Special Tribute Spirits in a contest as they launch their new Instagram account to share their work. To enter, participants in the contest must:
1.) Follow the @SpecialTributeSpiritsUSA Instagram account and follow @Avgeekery_news
2.) Tag two friends on the @Avgeekery_news CONTEST post to be eligible to win.
We’ll select a winner and the two friends that he or she tagged as winners on Dec 13th. No purchase is necessary to win.
Winners will receive the following:
1st Place: An Aviation Heritage Collection ICONIC Label Decanter
2nd Place: A Special Tribute Spirits Set of Glassware with Huie Lamb Artwork
3rd Place: A Huie Lamb Label Vinyl Sticker.
Customers of Special Tribute Spirits Have Choice of Several Series
The bottles make up their Aviation Heritage Collection. They come in the ICONIC Series, the PILOT SIGNATURE Series, and the CUSTOM Legacy Creations Series. In 2025, they will launch a Private Owners collection.
The ICONIC Series features well-known aircraft like the B-17 Bomber, P-51 Mustang, and the P-40 Warhawk. For the PILOT SIGNATURE Series, Special Tribute Spirits has arranged with some of the heroes that flew these historic aircraft to sign the bottles. These come in “wet” and dry” versions, with pilots physically signing the “wet” bottles.
Honoring the Tuskegee Airmen
The people at Special Tribute Sprits love to talk about pilots and aircraft. One special aviator is Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart. He was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen who flew the P-51D Red Tail Mustang during WWII. STS is honoring Col. Stewart with aviation aluminum and glass decanter filled with a 5-year-old limited-edition bourbon. It features the name of his P-51, “Little Coquette.”
Actual Aircraft Materials Imbedded in Custom Labels
They also produce limited-edition PREMIER Aviation Heritage bottles – rare bottles that include a piece of the material from the actual featured aircraft in each bottle label. These are roughly 5 cm square pieces of metal.
For the CUSTOM Legacy Creations series, customers can work with CTS to create their own bottles to commemorate a unique and personal aviation experience. They can also choose to embed a piece of aircraft material in the bottle design. These include the choice of scotch, rum, vodka, or bourbon.
Special Tribute Spirits Remembers Thrilling Missions of WWII Hero
One of the favorite pilots of Special Tribute Spirits is Huie Lamb. A veteran pilot of 61 combat missions during WWII, Lamb flew the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang. Lamb joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Huie Lamb Defeats ME-262 Jet Fighter
In a career filled with memorable moments, he is perhaps most well known as one of the first pilots to shoot down a German Me 262 jet fighter. Now 100 years old, Lamb described the 12 Oct 1944 mission:
I started a steep dive and was indicating about 475 mph and closing very fast. When I closed to about 1,000 yards, he must have seen me, as he started to pick up speed and pulled away a little. I gave my plane full power and water and started to close on him again, but very slowly. As I got within range and started shooting, he started to turn to the left. I easily turned inside of him and kept shooting during the entire turn, noting many strikes.
He made a 180-degree turn and then levelled out. He started back and led me over an airfield that had been shooting flak at me as I chased the jet. I saw the intense curtain of flak coming up at me, but followed him and got right on his tail, almost dead astern and noticed more strikes. I felt myself being hit several times, but opened fire on him again, from dead astern, and noticed more strikes. He threw off his canopy and then the plane caught fire. It flipped over on its back and exploded.”
WWII Pilot Huie Lamb Survives Ditching in Frigid North Sea
Another of Lamb’s memorable missions, his first in the then new P-51 Mustang, occurred on 29 December 1944 over the North Sea following a mission over Germany. Lamb’s fighter, which he named the “Etta Jeanne II”, began leaking coolant and the engine cut out. Lamb described the event:
“My first thought was to stretch my glide and try to make it back to the English coast, but I was dropping too fast. Then the nose of my plane burst into flames and I decided to bail out. I couldn’t release the canopy. I finally got the canopy open but was too low to bail out.
The tail hit first. Then a wave caught my right wing and the plane cartwheeled. It was a miracle that I survived the ditching because I had my seat belt and harness unbuckled in anticipation of bailing out. I got out of my seat and out of the plane, pushing away as far as possible to avoid down-suction. The nose plunged under with a burst of steam. The plane sank like a rock. It was gone in thirty seconds.
The water was freezing cold. I pulled the strings to inflate my Mae West and dinghy, but I couldn’t get into the dinghy, so I just hung on for dear life.”
Luckily, Lamb’s wingman, First Officer John C. Childs, saw Lamb’s P-51 hit the water. His own radio was not working, but he was able to land at a nearby airfield and direct a twin-engine Walrus flying boat of the British Air Rescue to Lamb’s location. Lamb was suffering from hypothermia and had a cut lip and broken tooth. He was flying again 10 days later.
Custom Bottle Honors Huie Lamb
Special Tribute Spirits is honoring Lamb with their #2 bottle in their Pilot Signature series, the “Huie Lamb.” It features his P-51 Mustang “Etta Jeanne II.” Lamb has signed several of the bottles.
Special Tribute Spirits Opens Shop
In 2018 helicopter pilot Johan Brand came up with the idea to commemorate aviation with custom bottles and spirits. He began handcrafting the bottles in his UK shop. Special Tribute Spirits still does everything by hand, using aircraft fabrication tools and techniques, in shops in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Once the bottles are complete, Special Tribute Spirits sends them to craft distillers in Scotland and the United States. They fill the bottles with premium liquors: Scotch, Bourbon, Rum, or Vodka.
A Passion for Aviation at Special Tribute Spirits
The people at Special Tribute Spirits share a deep interest and passion in all things related to aviation. They are always talking about aircraft like the iconic B-52 and modern marvels like the C-17. They remember crucial conflicts like WWII and Vietnam and modern missions like flights to Antarctica. Their bottles honor the efforts of pilots like Huie Lamb and Harry Stewart.
With their unique handcrafted bottles of premium spirits, Special Tribute Spirits is preserving aviation history and proudly honoring its people, aircraft, and missions.
Credit: avgeekery.com
