A reader question:
Dear Muffy,
May I ask the readership a question please.
I am a fan of flying jackets (being an amateur pilot) and have been collecting them since my teens. I have always worn them both for flying and casual wear and I have a variety both modern and vintage including an ex USAAF leather A2 from the second world war. I think they look especially good with an OCBD and a pair of khakis.
Do any other readers share my enthusiasm for this item of clothing?
Kind regards
It kept my father from freezing in the stalag, so yes.
ReplyDeleteThose WW2 jackets are serious. My father didn’t have one. He was 18 with the USNavy in Okinawa. À buddy’s father had one. He was a bombardier. He flew many missions over Europe. It was not a video game. Many of those WW2 veterans never spoke about their experiences. But they wore their jackets. One customer, a local business owner, always wore his shopping at the grocery store where I worked as a teenager. Saturday afternoon he would jokingly, sort of, fill his pockets with cans of crabmeat. The store manager played “got ya” at the checkout counter.
ReplyDeleteVintage Leather Jackets forum has every detail of USAAF jackets available. From A2's to B3's etc. The forum members are very helpful with any questions. Including Khakis from WW2.
ReplyDeleteAs the OP I should have made it clear that I don't just own leather flying jackets, I have them in cotton and nylon too
ReplyDeleteThey truly represent a most special time in our history, and still serve their original purpose to this day! And the stories they could tell, are priceless! Cheers!🛩
ReplyDeleteI own flight jackets but no flying jackets. I found flying jackets too hard to control, and my neighbor shot one of them down and ruined it.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle, as a Polish Flying Officer, navigated Lancaster bombers on sorties over Germany during the Second World War. I suspect, from our conversations many years ago, he may have flown over Dresden... and expect he left his sheepskin in the UK when he was demobilized. Although I inherited the contents of his home when he passed away, there were only a few mementos of his service, from before, during and after the war - mainly in the form of photographs. Both my uncle and dad were prolific shutterbugs. None of my uncle's effects contained period clothing. I did, however, inherit a tux from him upon being posted abroad in my late 30s, a quarter century ago; ...didn't fit; uncle Stan had a small body, but a big heart, and an even larger brain. He completed his medical studies in Ireland after the war, spoke 12 languages, and as a hobby in retirement went back to university to re-do his Greek and Latin courses because, in his words, 'he didn't do well enough on them the first time around.' Quite a role model; they didn't call them the greatest generation for nothing. I still miss him.
ReplyDeleteBanacek
I've never met any Polish flying officers, but I was fortunate enough to meet a former Polish cavalry officer one Christmas at the home of a former British cavalry officer who had taken part in the last mounted operation of the British Army, in Palestine. They had both ridden in the Olympics, the former in 1936 in Berlin, the latter in 1952 in Helsinki, for Canada. He didn't medal and I don't know how the other fellow did. This was almost 40 years ago.
DeleteI'm no pilot, but I am a keen enthusiast of fine menswear. Here's my opinion. I don't own a flight jacket because I find it impractical. Leather doesn't do well in the rain, nor does it do much to protect against cold. Plus, the jackets are heavy, and they require maintenance. I prefer a fleece jacket and/or a rain shell for casual outerwear on cool days.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I agree that a flight jacket paired with a blue or white OCBD and sturdy khakis can be a dashing outfit, especially if worn with quality leather shoes or boots and wire-rimmed sunglasses. It gives a bit of WWII-era flair without looking like one is playing dress-up. In fact, GHW Bush often wore just that outfit for casual events and looked great doing it. It helped, of course, that he actually was a WWII pilot!
But I would add a few caveats: 1) The cut matters. The large pockets and elastic waistband on a traditional A2 flight jacket are not flattering as they give a man a thick midsection even if he is thin. I prefer a jacket without an elastic waistband (such as Harrison Ford wore in Indiana Jones). 2) Patches and other insignia should be avoided, even if the wearer has earned them. A gentleman does not draw attention to himself or his accomplishments--an exception being granted to GHW Bush for wearing the presidential patch :). 3) Stick to natural fabrics. A nylon flight jacket, especially in black or military green, looks like it belongs on the battlefield (or perhaps on a soccer hooligan), not at the kid's lacrosse match.
I absolutely do share your enthusiasm! I even plan to order a shearling version for my 19 years old son for the next winter!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1:29: What a wonderful story! Polish pilots during WW2 were such heroes, unfortunately forgotten heroes! And yes, very well educated and brave!
The No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron was the highest-scoring fighter squadron of the Battle of Britain, even though it joined the fray two months after the battle had begun. "Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry," wrote Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, head of RAF Fighter Command, "I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle would have been the same."
Kind regards and happy Easter! Isabel
Check out History Preservation Associates. They are the US dealer for Eastman Leather of England. All types of flying jackets. I got a horsehide A2 from them back in the mid 90's.
DeleteThank you very much, I live in Europe and I know a small artisanal atelier located in Poland. I met them when looking for replicas for the movie, very professional, I guess I will order it there. Thank you again! Happy Easter!
DeleteIt's wonderful to see the above comments relating to those brave souls who wore their flying jackets WW11. My father was a tail gunner on B24's. He was in the RAF but was in one of only a few squadrons equipped with these American aeroplanes. He flew long range missions over Europe out of Foggia in Italy under Mediterranean (therefore American) command. He remained in the RAF after the war still flying as a tail gunner on four engine bombers until they became obsolete. He rarely talked about his experiences.
ReplyDeleteMy late father-in-law was an Army Air Corps officer during the war and flew in B24s, though not as a pilot. He was stationed at the same airfield where James Stewart had been stationed. He did have a leather flying jacket that he occasionally wore, but not the one he was issued during the war. He said that one was stolen.
ReplyDeleteA couple of notes about the classic leather flying jacket. The one most people think of was actually a summer weight jacket. They also fitted rather slim at the time. The Air Force still issues (or at least authorizes the wear) leather jackets. I attended by a promotion ceremony and three years later, the retirement ceremony of a relative of my wife who had been inspector general of the Air Force. Leather jackets were much in evidence.
James Stewart flew from both RAF Tibenham and RAF Old Buckenham in Norfolk in WW2 flying B24's. Both airfields still exist, Old Buckenham as a flying club and Tibenham as a gliding club and I have flown to and from both many times.
DeleteIt was Old Buckenham in my father-in-law's case. He was also a private pilot, owning several interesting planes, including a Culver Cadet, which was disassembled and stored in the basement of his house when I was courting his daughter. His last plane was a Mooney, which he claimed was a difficult aircraft to fly
DeleteHe was an aeronautical engineer (pre-aerospace, he liked to say), class of 1944 at VPI, but they all got drafted and didn't finish until after the war. He worked for Department of the Army. His father was also an engineer, and I worked for an engineer for 17 years before retiring. They all saw all problems as engineering problems with engineering solutions.
That's really interesting Blue Train. They have photos of Jimmy Stewart in the clubhouse at Old Buckenham. I'm going to fulfill a lifetimes ambition this summer and fly a Supermarine Spitfire
DeleteI've got a really nice USN G1 jacket that dates from the late 1950's that I'll wear...but usually only when I am 90% certain I will not be running in to any actual naval aviators. :-) I've had folks stop me on the street an offer to buy it, and some old naval aviators have told me that these were high-theft items both shipboard and on base.
ReplyDelete"Kind Regards"? I know that sign off.
ReplyDeleteGreat jackets- my dad was issued one as a navigator from 1942 to 1946. I have a made in USA Alpha ma-1 nylon flight jacket I bought on ebay for $28...Not as pretty but extremely practical...
ReplyDeleteThat was a bargain!
DeleteMy father was a WWII P-38 pilot in the 15th Air Force based in Italy. After he passed away 25 years ago, as a tribute I reproduced the incised and painted leather patches from his jacket and had them sown on a new, original spec A-2 jacket. He had designed the squadron patch so this was particularly meaningful. The wonderful thing about wearing this eye-catching jacket in public was meeting so many 15th Air Force veterans. These men would introduce themselves and share their experiences. I would tell them about my father. None ever complained that I shouldn't be wearing it. Once an older man came up and complimented the jacket, saying as a 15th veteran it was the first time he had seen a 15th Air Force jacket done right. I told him that I had made the jacket as a tribute to my late father. The older man called his adult son over and asked, "Why don't you do this for me?" The best encounter was a time I felt fingers lightly grazing over the large leather patch of a P-38 flying through flak on the back. I turned to meet a small, elderly lady who said in a dreamy voice, "This is just what they felt like." It turns out she had been a Womens' Air Service Pilot (WASP) during the war. After delivering planes she would spend the evening in the base officers' clubs. She remembered feeling the backs of the jackets when dancing with the boys. I still wear the jacket regularly, though it has been a few years since meeting a 15th vet.
ReplyDeleteI had mentioned in another comment that my (late) father-in-law had been an Army Air Corps officer during the war, flying in B24s. My father, on the other hand, had been an infantryman and had been captured in Italy, spending a year in a POW camp, coincidentally near where I was stationed in Germany 21 years later. They only met once. My father asked my father-in-law how a fighter pilot could parachute from a P38, given that a P38 has twin 'booms' and a horizontal tail assembly directly behind the cockpit. My father-in-law said he imagined that the pilot would flip the plane upside down so he would fall directly down, but he wasn't sure.
DeleteIncidentally, when both of them returned to the states after the war in Europe was over, they were both worried about being sent to the Pacific.
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DeleteThat's a wonderful tribute
DeleteBlueTrain: The training asserted that bailing out of a P-38 was no more dangerous than a single engine fighter. You could roll it over and drop out or crawl onto the wing, crouch into a ball and be swept under the rear stabilizer. Despite these reassuring words, my father had an extreme aversion to bailing out. This aversion almost caused him to wash out near the end of his training.
DeleteThe training exercise one day was to take a P-38 to 12 thousand feet and practice re-starting the engines in flight. The P-38s used in training were well used returns that were no longer fit for combat. Per instruction, my father took his plane up, shut off both engines and attempted re-start. The battle weary engines would not start. The standing orders in such a case were to bail out. My father chose to build up speed in an unpowered dive and dead-stick a landing instead. He received accolades from fellow trainees but a severe dressing down from higher-ups. At the next day's briefing, the officer said to the class, "Now that you know it's possible, nobody ever try that again."
That's funny. There's a similar scene in a movie made in 1944 in which the trainee, a civilian woman, tried a stall. The instructor threatened to hold up her license. But she said, "But I did everything you told." So, he said, "Well, okay." The thing that struck me was that my father came up with that question about a P-38 airplane 40 odd years later. He didn't talk a lot about the war, being too busy living in the present, but he did mention seeing waves of bombers flying overhead.
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