United States Army Air Forces Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Flight clothing==== [[File:P-40 64FS 57FG pilots.jpg|thumb|left|USAAF flight crew]] Flight clothing varied widely by [[European Theater of Operations, United States Army#A theater of operations|theater of operation]] and type of mission. Innovative aviation flight suits, boots, leather helmets, goggles, and gloves were issued as early as 1928 to the Air Corps, and at least one style, the Type A-3 flight suit, continued in service until 1944.<ref name="Bowman, USAAF Handbook, p. 171"/> However, [[A-2 jacket|A-2 flight jackets]], made standard issue on 9 May 1931, became one of the best known symbols of the AAF. Made of [[seal brown]] horsehide leather (later supplemented by goatskin) with a beige [[silk|spun silk]] lining (cotton after 1939), the jackets featured an officer's stand-up collar, [[shoulder strap]]s, knit waistbands and cuffs, a zipper closing, and unit insignia.<ref>Bowman (1997), p. 172.</ref> Heavy, sheepskin-lined B-3 and B-6 [[flight jacket]]s, A-3 winter flying trousers, and B-2 "gunner's" caps, all in seal brown [[shearling]], proved insufficient for the extreme cold temperatures of high altitude missions in unpressurized aircraft, and were supplemented by a variety of one-piece electrically heated flying suits manufactured by [[General Electric]]. In addition to men's flight clothing, flight nurses wore specially manufactured women's lightweight and intermediate weight flight jackets and pants.<ref>Smith (2001), pp. 244β246.</ref> Flight clothing such as the A-2 jacket was not authorized to be worn off the camp or post unless required for flight duty.<ref>AR 600-40 (Section IId, para. 9)</ref> The same sage green fatigue uniforms of herringbone cotton twill, and wind-resistant [[poplin]] field jackets used by Army ground troops, were also worn by AAF troops depending on duty assignment.<ref>Risch and Pitkin, p. .</ref> In early 1943 the AAF did not renew its contracts for leather flight garments and began production of flight jackets and flying trousers made of cotton twill and [[nylon]] blends with [[alpaca]] pile linings. The AAF standardized the sage green or light olive drab B-10 flight jacket on 22 July 1943, accompanied by matching A-9 flying trousers with built-in suspenders, and the combination became widespread in the Eighth Air Force by early 1944. The heavier B-15 jacket followed at the end of the year, with the A-11 trousers issued in the last months of the war. Most jackets featured a [[Sheepskin#Mouton fur|Mouton fur]] or shearling collar, but a popular variation known as the "tanker jacket" had a wool knit collar that was less confining. These new jackets were lighter in weight than their leather predecessors while just as warm. Hooded variants designated B-9 and B-11 also appeared in early 1944 but because they were bulky and their fur-lined hoods impractical in combat, these were worn primarily by noncombat personnel or during ground duties. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page