Earliest B-3, model 35-1545 P,

Made by the Werber leather Coat Co., these are some pictures I grabbed off eBay, when the jacket and trou came up for auction, around two years ago.
As noted in "Full Gear" the 35-1545P contract is the earliest, and I guess rare enough for there to be no pictures of it in the the book. I passed on the details of the auction to Mr Aota Mituhiro, ( the author)he may be now have some pictures.




I can pick quite few cool detail differences from the B-3 as we know it, the jacket seems to be a B-3/Irvin/Werber B-2 hybrid, but with a genuine label.

The diffs I can see are;
no sleeve patches/rank tabs
armpit gussets (ala Irvin)
sleeve zips (ala Irvin/B-2)
narrow collar throat strap (ala B-2)
Irvin style collar, leather backed, with hooks for an Irvin style elastic strap
narrow waist straps as per the collar strap
main zipper is offset, because the windflap extends up into the right side of the collar, giving the collar an assymetric look,
and of course the contrasting fleece colours, between the back panels and the collar/windflap.

These are some pictures I borrowed out of "Suit Up", pgs 92/93, which show the offset zip and collar, and a glimpse of a sleeve zip.





The picture of the three flyers provides a good quick comparison between early and later style of B-3.

Comments?

BEVAN.

Thanks for the post, and the pictures, Bevan. The early versions always seem to be the most interesting, with their variations prior to designs becoming standardised.

Also courtesy of eBay, and for comparison here's version 2, with the mysterious chest buckle ...