1928-1932 Spalding Leather Flight Suit

[Dinerman]

Here's a super rare one. This flight suit was made by A.G. Spalding & Bros in the late 1920s-early 1930s.









Matching boots and cap



And a whopping nine Hookless zippers

 

[Dinerman]

 

[mr_lits]

Fantastic.... thanks for sharing.

 

[Carlos840]

That's nice! Perfect for shoveling snow this winter!

 

[Dinerman]

With its offset zip, belted waist, zipped cuffs and large map pocket, type of suit is one of the main sources of design inspiration for early motorcycle jacket designs.

 

[Worf]

Now THAT my friend is a flight suit! Is the helmet vintage as well?

Worf

 

[Dinerman]

The helmet and boots are both original to the suit, late '20s. I just got in some vintage ads showing all three pieces. I'll post them once I get them scanned.

 

[EmergencyIan]

Wow! Looks great and all three pieces are in incredible condition. Amazing!

- Ian

 

[tmitchell59]

Absolutely amazing find! Museum quality. Does it have a back story? I haven't read through your entire picking thread. You are in a picking league by yourself.

What is the leather?

 

[mihai]

Fantastic suit, congratulations. If I may ask, where did you find it? It is so rare, I'd feel guilty wearing it.
The bottom part resembles to my early 30s A-1 pants (Switlik Parachute) - see a sample here(http://stumptown-traders.blogspot.lu/2012/02/ww2-1-horsehide-flight-pants-by-switlik.html). Mine are in much better shape than the blog pair.
The upper part might resemble to the B-1 jacket. How does a B-1 jacket look like? Anyone has an idea?

 

[Dinerman]

Leather feels like capeskin, the lining is a silk pile. I think the boots are horse. I got the original ads for the suit yesterday, and as you can imagine, this kind of specialty suit was super expensive new. Endorsed by Lindbergh! This design predates the A1 / B1 design by a couple of years, but you can definitely see where the army got some ideas from. I wish I knew more on the provenance, the dealer I bought it from bad their facts on it all mixed up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dinerman]

Period ads

 

[willyto]

This is just an amazing find. It looks in very good shape for the years it has on it.

 

[Graemsay]

That's really cool.

Hey, maybe I should see if John Chapman can copy it.

 

[feltfan]

Wow, thanks for sharing this. Amazing to see.

 

[Steve S.]

nice! I like the "baseball" snap on the helmet!

 

[WhiskeyTangoFox]

That's a really nice example, Dinerman. It's interesting that the interior lining looks nearly identical to the 1st generation Werber B-2 jacket/A-2 trousers before they changed to the wool blanket liner. Thanks for sharing with us.

Noel