A-1 Jacket / A1 Flying Jacket - The ultimate Golden Era flying accessory!

[feltfan]

Some of you might remember the capeskin Goodwear A-1 I received at the beginning of 2009.
For the curious, here is how it has worn after 5 1/2 years. I wear it frequently but do have plenty of
other jackets, so I don't wear it all the time. And yes, I am still a bad photographer, especially with an iPhone.

Here's what it looked like in 2009.


I know. Terrible light. But notice how it drapes differently now.

 

[mr_lits]

Awesome. Really beautiful jacket.

 

[handymike]

Beautiful!!!!!
Thanks for sharing the new pictures.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Can't see any difference in how it drapes but it's a nice jacket, then and now.

 

[Stearmen]

Here's one for all you A-1 owners, how's your button holes holding up? I am curious as to the repeated buttoning and unbuttoning, and whether it is wearing out the threads, and distorting the holes like on blue jeans?

 

[devilish]

I'm not sure if I've posted a photo of this A-1 in here before? Forgive me if I have. As the thread came back around I thought it was a good excuse to throw one recent one up.

 

[bn1966]

Lovely piece of smutter

 

[Boyo]

I sniped this from another site, thought you fellers might be interested

"Does anyone have any experience with Headwind mfg."

Guy has a kickstarter for A-1 jackets at a very reasonable price!
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...1-leather-flight-jacket-reprod?ref=nav_search

http://www.headwindmfg.com/jackets.html

 

[ButteMT61]

I'm not sure if I've posted a photo of this A-1 in here before? Forgive me if I have. As the thread came back around I thought it was a good excuse to throw one recent one up.

Now I want another A-1 again! Awesome...

 

[nick123]

...and no shortage of breathtaking scenery in your A-1 pics either.

 

[bretron]

I sniped this from another site, thought you fellers might be interested

"Does anyone have any experience with Headwind mfg."

Guy has a kickstarter for A-1 jackets at a very reasonable price!
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...1-leather-flight-jacket-reprod?ref=nav_search

http://www.headwindmfg.com/jackets.html

He's doing a kickstarter campaign? Love it!!! Great motivation to get an A1 now and support one of the forum troops

EDIT: long way to his goaline :|

 

[ButteMT61]

That's a shame. But man you gotta hammer the social media these days if you want to be seen. I hope he gathers some interest in his jackets. They look good for the price and surely are easier to swallow that the big gun's prices/waits.

That said, I still miss my GW A-1 that WORF proudly owns now...

 

[Sloan1874]

Yeah, I was interested but he just doesn't seem to be getting any traction. Still fancy an A-1, I love the unstructured look of it.

 

[Stearmen]

Here's one for all you A-1 owners, how's your button holes holding up? I am curious as to the repeated buttoning and unbuttoning, and whether it is wearing out the threads, and distorting the holes like on blue jeans?

So no one wears their A-1 enough to give feed back? I really would like to know.

 

[CBI]

No issues with button holes fraying with lots of use - at least for me.

 

[devilish]

No issues with the button holes on my A-1. If it fits correctly I don't see why there would be. The button holes on the fly of a pair of jeans goes through more stress and movement than a jacket front does. Especially these days with the tendency towards slimmer fitting jeans with lower rises.

 

[Deacon211]

I have the naval jacket on order from Headwind. I received a first copy that was just a bit close fitting in the chest on me, so Jay is adjusting the pattern and making me another. I will post when I get it.

From the first version though, the fit is close, obviously more A-2 like than G-1. The leather is nice, soft, and well grained...almost what I imagine the cape skin version would be, but tougher. Stitching looks good and I see no flaws in the jacket overall.

Two notes for those considering the Navy jacket over the AAC version.

First, the pockets sit quite high, about chest height. In the pics on the website, this looks like the pockets are neither here nor there. Wearing the jacket though, they look very natural low on the chest.

Second, the design of the collar really seems to favor wearing it up. The collar will fold over, but it doesn't quite look like a collar due to the rounded front. It's a light jacket, so I'm unsure if wearing the collar permanently up will be a bit warm in the environment that the light leather favors. We shall see.

Pics when it comes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Boyo]

I have an A-1 (Eastman) or I'd be backing the Kickstarter.. Great Price for sure.. if the Kickstarter included A choice for the USN jacket I grab that one at this price..

 

[2jakes]

Has anyone seen the original specs for the A-1? Does it specifically say Cape Sheep? According to several different sources I have come across, capeskin was originally a term used to describe the fine grained leather from the Cape Goat used for gloves etc. and only more recently has sheepskin been described as capeskin. Maybe these "authentic" reproductions are not all that authentic?

Type A-1 Designation Sheet by U.S. Army Air Corp & I’m directed to the various companies that make the reproduction A-1.


For the A-2 jacket, I found the following below.

Would be great if someone knows how to locate the information for the Type A-1 by U.S. Army. If it exists.

Then there was the many private leather makers who used what they had available.

What is “authentic” is not so easy to determine.

But am looking forward to find out !

Thanks.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Has anyone seen the original specs for the A-1? Does it specifically say Cape Sheep? According to several different sources I have come across, capeskin was originally a term used to describe the fine grained leather from the Cape Goat used for gloves etc. and only more recently has sheepskin been described as capeskin. Maybe these "authentic" reproductions are not all that authentic?

My understanding is that the surviving examples of A1's are all sheep. While capeskin originally meant goat, I don't think there's a goat A1 example from the period.