Spitzfeuer
October 27, 2015 at 2:51 pm

Today's historic flight jacket manufacturers

Hello everybody,

this thread might be useful to anybody looking for historic flight jackets. I only mean newly manufactured ones.

Here ist my first suggestion from Paris, France. They still build the famous “Aéropostale” flight jacket. You can even have it made to measure if you like:
http://www.bisonfutecuir.fr/aviation.html

Here is another store from the US:
http://www.flightjacket.com/

And from the UK:
https://www.flying-jacket.com/product-details.aspx?id=1

From Russia: Technoavia cool stuff but I don’t know if they mail things to the west. But they will sell it to Westeners in their stores.
http://www.technoavia.com/catalogue/aviation_clothing

The famous “Bücker” combi from Switzerland:
http://ontopag.ch/shop/fliegerbekleidung/bueckerkombi-schweiz/

Finally from Germany the AF leather jacket that is now phased out in favour of some ugly Goretex-thingy:
http://www.beckumerleder.de/index.php?lang=en&s=fliegerjacke_214530&sub=

Cheers, Spitzfeuer

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By: J Boyle - 30th October 2015 at 14:44

The current A-2s are now made of smaller leather parts. I think the back is now a triple construction instead of a double one as before.

The site I posted a link that says something along those lines, I’d imagine three pieces allow a greater degree of flexibility (especially with certain arm movements…a weak spot with stiff leather coats) and comfort, something important if you’re wearing them for a long period of time in a cockpit.

As far as sizes, we have my father’s WWII A-2. He was tall for the time 5’10″…and I haven’t been able to wear it since I was in high school (and not because I’m fat, just larger at 6’3″). So it sounds like when they redesigned the current issue A-2, they took lessons from the 1987 re-issue which was largely unchanged in design from the WWII item.

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By: Spitzfeuer - 30th October 2015 at 09:10

The current A-2s are now made of smaller leather parts. I think the back is now a triple construction instead of a double one as before. Pilot sizes tend to become bigger and big sized skins of leather are getting more expensive.

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By: J Boyle - 29th October 2015 at 18:17

Here’s a link to the firm that sells the new USAF A-2 jackets:
http://www.bestglide.com/cooperpage.htm

Apparently the current issue is slightly changed form the 1987 spec (1987 was the USAF started re-issuing the jackets to flight crew).
In 1987 they were made by Cooper, I have one that I bought at the time and it’s great.
I also have a civil-spec A-2 made out of softer leather and unobtrusive “hand warmer” side pockets made by Avirex, and it’s held up for 30 years.

The well-known and upscale American outdoor firm Orvis sells a nice RAF-style jacket:
http://www.orvis.com/p/raf-shearling-bomber-jacket/2ep5

And they offer a USN G-1 jacket for you Top Gun fans:
http://www.orvis.com/p/g-1-naval-aviator-flight-jacket/15mp