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Can you ID this A-2?

Greg Gale

Well-Known Member
Hi All,

I was told I can find the best A-2 jacket experts here. Could anyone help me ID George Preddy's A-2 jacket please? What contract is it?

Thanks a lot in advance!
Greg

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Bill%20Preddy%2001.jpg


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7813ce9fb8be02182e0e1c39ae4d917f--mustang-planes.jpg
 

Lorenzo_l

Well-Known Member
Hi Greg,

Welcome to the forum. I am no expert, but the jacket in the 3rd picture down looks like an Aero to me, although I might stand to be corrected here. Too hard to say anything about the other pictures as I can see too little detail. There is good chance that he was wearing the same A2 during his tour though.
Let's hear it for the experts!
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
aero. i cant make out if it has a collar stand, and if it does, i would recon a 1940-1941 16160. if not, one of the 1942 aero contracts.
 

Greg Gale

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the quick replies! It indeed looks a lot like an Aero 16160. At first, the pointier collar and the narrow wrist made me think of a Star Sportswear, but the pocket flaps suggested otherwise.
 

Greg Gale

Well-Known Member
Wow, I'm amazed how much you guys know about A-2s.

@Ken, which Aero contract do you think it is?
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
having just taken a look see at the preddy close up, and noticing a material fold on the right [under the shirt collar point], i am sticking with 16160 aero. thanx for the link, btw.
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
having just taken a look see at the preddy close up, and noticing a material fold on the right [under the shirt collar point], i am sticking with 16160 aero. thanx for the link, btw.

"Material fold", not seam, there's not a single stitch to be seen, and even if this fold was the (unstitched) edge of a collar stand it would be a good 1" deeper than any one I've ever seen...............I couldn't be more certain that there's no collar stand. 100%

Blow up apart which supports my case, may I get technical, construction-wise?

The killer proof is the positioning of the female throat hook. The reason they sit lower on ther neck on the RH side of non stand collar A-2s is that, without the stand, there is no longer a natural curve at the top of the RH front that matched the one on the LH front making the natural position for the RH Throat Hook to be high against the collar, ON the collar stand, always. Without the collar stand and bearing in mind that the LH front is aprox 1 1/2" wider than the RH front, the natural position for the female hook is now at least 1" lower than on the collar stand patterns and hence the sort of distance from the highest edge/fold of the lining that shows in the pics.
In 1942 it wasn't just a case of bining the collar stand pattern piece and sewing the collar straight onto the body shell, the whole neck area differs on the two construction methods
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
John Chapman has a huge reputation for getting his detailing bang on
Go check the different positions of the throat hooks on his stand collar A-2 against his non stand collar jackets, on the later jackets (non stand collar) the RH throat hook has dropped away from being pretty tight against the top edge of the lining, on the stand collar, to approx 1" to 1 & 1.2" below the edge of the lining....................just like the Aero in question
I appologise for having an unfair advantage on the construction side of the A-2, I'm not saying VLJ hasn't got better informed contributors on the historical side
Nevertheless I rest my case your honour :>)
 
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Persimmon

Well-Known Member
Wow, I'm amazed how much you guys know about A-2s.

@Ken, which Aero contract do you think it is?

John Chapman has a huge reputation for getting his detailing bang on
Go check the different positions of the throat hooks on his stand collar A-2 against his non stand collar jackets, on the later jackets (non stand collar) the RH throat hook has dropped away from being pretty tight against the top edge of the lining, on the stand collar, to approx 1" to 1 & 1.2" below the edge of the lining....................just like the Aero in question
I appologise for having an unfair advantage on the construction side of the A-2, I'm not saying VLJ hasn't got better informed contributors on the historical side
Nevertheless I rest my case your honour :>)

So your choice of contract number would be ...
 
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