Help with Flying Helmet I/D.

The green cloth helmet is a late G type, earlier G type were blue-grey. It did go inside Mk1A helmets but could also be worn on its own, usually in small aircraft such as the Chipmunk or very large aircraft such as transports and the V Bombers. The Mk1A should have been out of service by the mid sixties but I’ve seen one in use by a RAF Phantom driver. It was lighter and cooler than later helmets but offered less protection.

The mask is an A13 variant, designed and used in the US and later adopted by the RAF, in the fifties and possibly early sixties, for use mainly but not exclusively on US origin aircraft.

Hi Ritch and Max,

I’m no expert but I’d say the helmet was later than the mask. The mask is actually a US type, used in all sorts of aircraft from late WW2 until well into post-war. If it has the AM decal on the side then it is likely purchased from US stocks for use in the NA Sabre and Boeing Washington by the RAF so, fifties era.

I think the earlier types of this helmet were grey and the green ones came in later – probably late sixties and would be used either underneath the Mk.1 bone dome or on its own in crew positions in heavies. They were in use until quite recently, I think.

So, no, I think it unlikely that the mask is original to the helmet. Different eras.

Anon.