33-1729
Well-Known Member
First, I must say "thank you" to the Cartographic Branch at the National Archives and Records Administration for finding and sending this to me so quickly.
Second, I know little about US Navy flying jackets and even less about the early ones like this, so, I am mostly parroting what I read off these Lakehurst Naval Air Station Bureau of Aeronautics Engineering Plans and adding some context where able.
Below is a near hundred year old engineering drawing from the US Navy on their navy blue M-112-1 flying jacket.
The file is dated from 1919 to 1945, but we can narrow that down a bit. Electrified clothing began in the late 1910's (WWI), the US military started using wind and water resistant "jungle cloth" in the 1920's, and the first date I found the term "zipper" listed on the chest map pocket was in the early 1920's. (The number 25-11097 was included with the file and if like an US Army Air Corp number it would be year-order#, for 1925, but I have no idea if the US Navy used this nomenclature in the early to mid 1920's so take this as only as a possibility.) In March 1940 the M-422, a much later flight jacket design, was introduced so this drawing is likely from the early 1920's through 1930's.
Unlike WWII where regulation gear was required, in WWI there wasn't much regulation gear to speak about. Private purchases ruled the day and why it's not surprising to see a WWI flight crew wearing all different gear (see page 2 of Combat Flying Equipment by C.G. Sweeting for a common example.) Some of this was driven by the war with the Aviation Section, Signal Corp (predecessor of the US Army Air Corp) having 65 officers and around 1,000 men in April 1917 but by wars end having 7,738 officers and 70,769 men (ref. Nelson & Parsons). Aviation was new and pilots were trying just about everything through the 1930's. Read flying articles from the 1910's and death by exposure wasn't that uncommon, so finding the appropriate gear was a very serious effort. Mr Eastman talked about people cutting up their flight jackets to try and improve them while the US Army Air Corp worked on the A-1 (The chrome-tanned sheepskin A-1 was approved Nov 1927 with the US Navy 37J1 version approved earlier in July 1927.). As flight altitudes (and lower temperatures) kept increasing finding the best gear became even more critical. This is a post-WWI Navy design, so I suspect this was when they were trying to settle on a standard issue (something that consistently worked) versus private purchases (and something that maybe didn't work that well). Don't know if this design was ever procured by the US Navy.
Reference:
Flying Jacket
NAID: 205390759
Creator: Department of the Navy. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey. ca. 1919-ca. 1945
Record Group 72: Records of the Bureau of Aeronautics
Series: Lakehurst Naval Air Station Engineering Plans
Second, I know little about US Navy flying jackets and even less about the early ones like this, so, I am mostly parroting what I read off these Lakehurst Naval Air Station Bureau of Aeronautics Engineering Plans and adding some context where able.
Below is a near hundred year old engineering drawing from the US Navy on their navy blue M-112-1 flying jacket.
The file is dated from 1919 to 1945, but we can narrow that down a bit. Electrified clothing began in the late 1910's (WWI), the US military started using wind and water resistant "jungle cloth" in the 1920's, and the first date I found the term "zipper" listed on the chest map pocket was in the early 1920's. (The number 25-11097 was included with the file and if like an US Army Air Corp number it would be year-order#, for 1925, but I have no idea if the US Navy used this nomenclature in the early to mid 1920's so take this as only as a possibility.) In March 1940 the M-422, a much later flight jacket design, was introduced so this drawing is likely from the early 1920's through 1930's.
Unlike WWII where regulation gear was required, in WWI there wasn't much regulation gear to speak about. Private purchases ruled the day and why it's not surprising to see a WWI flight crew wearing all different gear (see page 2 of Combat Flying Equipment by C.G. Sweeting for a common example.) Some of this was driven by the war with the Aviation Section, Signal Corp (predecessor of the US Army Air Corp) having 65 officers and around 1,000 men in April 1917 but by wars end having 7,738 officers and 70,769 men (ref. Nelson & Parsons). Aviation was new and pilots were trying just about everything through the 1930's. Read flying articles from the 1910's and death by exposure wasn't that uncommon, so finding the appropriate gear was a very serious effort. Mr Eastman talked about people cutting up their flight jackets to try and improve them while the US Army Air Corp worked on the A-1 (The chrome-tanned sheepskin A-1 was approved Nov 1927 with the US Navy 37J1 version approved earlier in July 1927.). As flight altitudes (and lower temperatures) kept increasing finding the best gear became even more critical. This is a post-WWI Navy design, so I suspect this was when they were trying to settle on a standard issue (something that consistently worked) versus private purchases (and something that maybe didn't work that well). Don't know if this design was ever procured by the US Navy.
Reference:
Flying Jacket
NAID: 205390759
Creator: Department of the Navy. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey. ca. 1919-ca. 1945
Record Group 72: Records of the Bureau of Aeronautics
Series: Lakehurst Naval Air Station Engineering Plans
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