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Erik
Viktor was born in Brussels, Belgium on the 4th of May 1960. He
is the son of a P.R. mother Hilde Degraer and an Aerospace Writer,
the late Wim
Dannau
He fluently speaks and writes 6 languages.
Aged 11, he published his own school magazine in which many teachers
wrote articles. The second issue of the magazine was censored by
the school's director.
His
first illustrations about WW2 were published in books when he was
only 12 years old.
In 1979 at age 19 and with only 35 flying hours (the legal minimum
on a PPL) he conquered the first place in a precision flying competition
in Great Britain. Later he completed his airline pilot training
at the "Oxford Air Training School" being the only student passing
all written and flight tests on the first attempt. His progress
was supervised by his tutor and spiritual father, former experimental
test pilot Andrew William (Bill) Bedford
O.B.E.
Erik
Viktor has been painting visionary projects since october 1984,
when he swapped careers from flying commercial aircraft to painting
future space projects. His first attempted illustration showing
the U.S. Space station, which included a text by his father Wim
Dannau, was published straight away by 26 magazines world-wide (Figaro,
Bunte, Washington Post Magazine, Playboy, Asahi Shinbun....). At
the time it was the only illustration world-wide that showed the
space station.
Together they produced many visionary illustrated articles showing
secret or unknown futuristic technical projects. A reader would
be an astronaut on Mars, raising the "Titanic" or flying the secret
USAF plane "Aurora"....
1986
he designed a revolutionary bicycle called the Astrobike.
The prototype was sold to one of the world's leading bicycle constructors.
Its unique lines and innovations led to the present design trend
in modern bicycles and scooters.
In
1987 Erik Viktor landed a big hit when his new illustrated story
about the future of Europe in Space was published in the now famous
French "Playboy" issue that pictured
the naked wife of right-wing politician "Le Pen". Many other stories
were at the time sold world-wide.
In
1990 he produced a large galaxy painting for Madame Tussaud's London
Planetarium, which is still on display in the entrance Hall today.
A
few years later, while still producing his visionary illustrated
stories for the Press, he was by now writing them himself, he produced
his first project illustration for MBB and later Deutsche Aerospace
A.G.
Project "Saenger" was the first
illustration for the industry. It became an immediate hit. Later
another version of the "Saenger" project was produced for "Revell".
Many more have followed since including "Astrospas"
for Dasa, Dara and NASA, "Cluster"
illustrating the (failed) Ariane 5 start, "Meteosat", "EPS/Ariane
5", as well as a painting for MAN Technology illustrating "Ariane
in the Sky".
Most of these were distributed worldwide by the company's Press
offices or produced as posters.
In
1992 he produced the renowned visionary Space exhibition Spaceworld
for the BDLI, the German Aerospace Association.
The same year(1992) one of his paintings showing Northern
Germany, joined the first common German mission into orbit where
it stayed on board of the Space Station MIR for three months. It
was signed and stamped by all crews that visited the station.
In
1995 MAN Technology ordered 2 large paintings "
Ariane in the Sky" and "At the
edge of the Galaxy", each measuring from 3 to 8 m in length
and 2.5 m in height to enhance their lobby.
In 1996, OHB System Technik ordered a similar painting called "Nebula"
measuring 2.5 m x 3.5 m for their entrance Hall.
Erik Viktor is one a few artists working for several competing Aerospace
Companies at the same time.
Today
more than 120 magazines publish his work on a regular basis. Among
them;
Der Spiegel, l'Express, Figaro, Focus, Hoerzu, Flug Revue, Bild,
VSD, L'express, Interview, Cambio 16, Bild der Wissenschaft, Space,
Cosmos, ....and many more.
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