Eino Ilmari Juutilainen

Born 21st February 1914
Died 21st February 1999 (aged 85)

A fighter pilot and ace of the Ilmavoimat, the top scoring Finnish fighter pilot and the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time.

94 confirmed aerial combat victories (he claimed 126) with 34 of his victories in the Brewster Buffalo fighter.

He flew :-

Fokker D.XXI
Brewster Buffalo
Messerschmitt Bf109

Twice received the Mannerheim Cross

Juutilainen finished the war without a single hit to his plane from enemy fire - although he was the victim of friendly fire where he was forced to land due to anti-aircraft fire. He also never lost a wingman in combat.

For the Wikipedia entry on Eino Ilmari Juutilainen see here :-

[link]

Pencil sketch outline - scanned into "The GIMP" and "painted" using digital pencil, paint and smudge tool from The GIMP and text added via GIMP also.

As with all the portraits in this fighter ace "collection", the submission is not intended to glorify war in any way shape or form or to highlight any particular country or belief - it's only purpose is to highlight the many brave men (and women - although not many women became fighter aces - if you know different please let me know) who fought, and died, under the orders of leaders who should have known better but never will.