Famous People in Flight Jackets

[Doctor Damage]

Nice rear view of G1 jackets (getting ready for the Doolittle raid). Click for large size.

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Stearmen]

John Gregson in Angels 1-5. A frontline wartime action drama set around the Battle of Britain and featuring action around the airfields of Kent.
The title "Angels One Five" refers to WWII RAF operations room instruction that detects radar contact at 1,500 feet altitude. Could be friend or foe.

John Gregson wears a B3.

For the eagle eyed I don't know how accurate Jack Hawkins RAF uniform is.

Actually, Angels One Five, would be 15,000 feet!

 

[devilish]

Nice rear view of G1 jackets (getting ready for the Doolittle raid). Click for large size.

Pretty sure those are A-2's. I don't see action backs or mouton collars. I do see single piece backs and epaulets. The Doolittle crews were Army flyers and wore A-2's.

 

[Deacon211]

Actually, Angels One Five, would be 15,000 feet!

True dat!

And the lesser known, and lesser used, "cherubs" is altitude in hundreds.


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[Steve27752]

Pretty sure those are A-2's. I don't see action backs or mouton collars. I do see single piece backs and epaulets. The Doolittle crews were Army flyers and wore A-2's.

You are correct, they are A2's and B3 jackets.

 

[Treetopflyer]

True dat!

And the lesser known, and lesser used, "cherubs" is altitude in hundreds.


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As a Helo guy, we use Cherubs all the time when talking to military ATC. Anything higher than 1,000 feet (Angels one) is scary.

 

[Treetopflyer]

Austin Stowell plays U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Pretty sure those are A-2's. I don't see action backs or mouton collars. I do see single piece backs and epaulets. The Doolittle crews were Army flyers and wore A-2's.

You're quite right, I saw the carrier deck and assumed G1s without looking!

 

[Doctor Damage]

Austin Stowell plays U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies.

The movie is set in 1960 but I'm wondering if MA-1 jackets had pocket flaps and the medium green colour yet?

 

[rocketeer]

Actually, Angels One Five, would be 15,000 feet!

I say old boy, well spotted a misplaced comma and a missing 0. I'll never make a pilot. Wizard prang old chap!

 

[Stearmen]

I say old boy, well spotted a misplaced comma and a missing 0. I'll never make a pilot. Wizard prang old chap!

Bang on, Tally-Ho!

 

[jetpilotoverseas1]

As seen in this post of 'Jet Pilot Overseas' blog, these seem to have been more than just K-2B flight suits heavily modified - rather an experimental version I guess.
I also found another post in a different militaria forum referring to the same jacket with a bit of extra info on its possible manufacturer, but the jacket's identity is still elusive.

The cloth flight jackets mentioned earlier in this post are from two different manufactures. They are not cut down flight suits but are jackets designed for civilian test pilots. Contacts for these were placed by the aircraft manufactures, such as Douglas, North American, Convair and Boeing. The jackets are fully reversable with green one side and orange the other. The first were made by FRUHAUF SOUTHWEST and were made from 1957, at the same time they made the first orange flight suits. These were made by them on the behest of Douglas who lost one of their test pilots and could not locate his body, this was before there use by the USN and the USAAF. The orange flight suits were even used by USAF pilots, (see F-101 sun run in November 1957).

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The second flight jacket with the raglan sleeves were made by LAND Mfg they are of similar design and most probably date from the early 1960's. I have seen them being worn by Lockheed, Hughes and General Electric pilots. Not all of these jackets were orange on the otherside I have seen Lockheed one that is green and non reversable.


I have both Fruhauf and Land jackets in my collection, they are not very common I've only seen a couple of each come up in the last ten years.
Hope that helps a little.

 

[willyto]

I watched the past two days Memphis Belle (1990) and The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) and there were a lot of known actors wearing A-2 flying jackets , A-3 flying trousers, B-3 flying jackets, B-2 Flying caps and I couldn't stop looking at the details. I wonder who supplied all those jackets for the movies because there are a lot of them.

I may have to take some screenshots of them.

 

[Treetopflyer]

I watched the past two days Memphis Belle (1990) and The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) and there were a lot of known actors wearing A-2 flying jackets , A-3 flying trousers, B-3 flying jackets, B-2 Flying caps and I couldn't stop looking at the details. I wonder who supplied all those jackets for the movies because there are a lot of them.

I may have to take some screenshots of them.

There are several screen shots of both those movies throughout this thread.

 

[Stearmen]

The cloth flight jackets mentioned earlier in this post are from two different manufactures. They are not cut down flight suits but are jackets designed for civilian test pilots. Contacts for these were placed by the aircraft manufactures, such as Douglas, North American, Convair and Boeing. The jackets are fully reversable with green one side and orange the other. The first were made by FRUHAUF SOUTHWEST and were made from 1957, at the same time they made the first orange flight suits. These were made by them on the behest of Douglas who lost one of their test pilots and could not locate his body, this was before there use by the USN and the USAAF. The orange flight suits were even used by USAF pilots, (see F-101 sun run in November 1957).

[/url] img host[/IMG]

The second flight jacket with the raglan sleeves were made by LAND Mfg they are of similar design and most probably date from the early 1960's. I have seen them being worn by Lockheed, Hughes and General Electric pilots. Not all of these jackets were orange on the otherside I have seen Lockheed one that is green and non reversable.


I have both Fruhauf and Land jackets in my collection, they are not very common I've only seen a couple of each come up in the last ten years.
Hope that helps a little.

It's a shame they are so rare, they are really nice looking jackets!

 

[bentusian]

The cloth flight jackets mentioned earlier in this post are from two different manufactures. They are not cut down flight suits but are jackets designed for civilian test pilots. Contacts for these were placed by the aircraft manufactures, such as Douglas, North American, Convair and Boeing. The jackets are fully reversable with green one side and orange the other. The first were made by FRUHAUF SOUTHWEST and were made from 1957, at the same time they made the first orange flight suits. These were made by them on the behest of Douglas who lost one of their test pilots and could not locate his body, this was before there use by the USN and the USAAF. The orange flight suits were even used by USAF pilots, (see F-101 sun run in November 1957).

[/url] img host[/IMG]

The second flight jacket with the raglan sleeves were made by LAND Mfg they are of similar design and most probably date from the early 1960's. I have seen them being worn by Lockheed, Hughes and General Electric pilots. Not all of these jackets were orange on the otherside I have seen Lockheed one that is green and non reversable.


I have both Fruhauf and Land jackets in my collection, they are not very common I've only seen a couple of each come up in the last ten years.
Hope that helps a little.

That helped a lot!
Thanks for finally shedding me a good light on these elusive jackets, and also for sharing the origin of rescue orange suits.
It sounds even more intriguing to me that the aircraft manufacturers ordered them.

Could you post some pics of the said jackets from your collection?


PS: Are you THE owner of Jetpilotoverseas blog?

 

[jetpilotoverseas1]

Hi,
Yes I am the owner of Jetpilotoverseas although I have not updated it in a long time!

Here is the Land MFG jacket, I'm working on an article about them, I have not taken pictures of the Fruhauf yet but I plan to in the near future


Land went on to design a number of different styles of flight jacket and became the supplier to NASA making their iconic blue Apollo era jackets.
All the best.

 

[Doctor Damage]

^ Gosh, what a great jacket. I'd really like to see Buzz R do a replica of that one!

 

[apba1166]