Flying Clothing

Posted:
By: Paul Bellamy
On: 07/10/2006

Hi All,

Looking through the Blue Book and other photo sources, there seems to be very few shots of 401st aircrew wearing non-leather flying gear.
Could anyone tell me if, for example, the A2 jacket's replacements (B-10 and B-17 cotton/alpaca jackets) and their corresponding trousers (A-11 etc.) were issued whilst at Deenethorpe.

I've managed to pick up an original 1944 pair of A-11 trousers and braces to match my Aero Leather B-10 jacket, and hope these would be fine to use with my HBT flying overalls for a circa-1944 401st display.

All the best,
Paul

Flying Clothing: an update

Posted:
By: Paul Bellamy
On: 08/12/2006

Progress is being made....

Looking through the Blue Book again, not my usual skim-reading, shows quite a number of photos of crews with non-leather flight clothing. Oops.

I was lucky enough to get hold of a lot more bits of flight clothing at a sale in the UK, which now means I can display a setup suitable for late 1944, although not entirely "by the book".

The current setup is as follows:

Cotton long underwear,
GI shirt, tie and trousers,
F-2 heated suit inner jacket and trousers,
A-11 trousers,
B-10 jacket,
heated boot liners,
A-6 boots,
F-2/3 heated glove liners,
A-9 gloves,
H-2 baleout bottle with the green ball.

No helmet or chute so far, but I'm working on it. I'm also on the lookout for a pair of the black felt F-2 boots, as the A-6s are a bit fragile these days.

All the best,
Paul

Kettering