Spec. 94-3040, "Jacket, Flying, Type A-2"

[Ole]

 

[Ole]

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

Re Ole's post above

More excellent research although this is in respect of knitted, rather than woven. spun silk the strength and wear qualities of the thread will be identical...............I'd expect?

With reference to my earlier post regarding Aero Spun Silk ........................

SNIP
As regards wear of Spun Silk v. Cotton I can only refer to our A-2 linings, over the years we've see more/worse damage to the neck area of Spun Silk lined jackets than we see in the cotton lined jackets. SNIP.

..........This might be an unfair comparison as. over the lifetime of Aero Scotland, we have made far more Spun Silk lined A-2 than Cotton lined, plus the fact that that the silk lined jackets are all considerably older (and logically) have had much more wear than our cotton lined jackets (Mostly under 20 years old)

 

[MikeyB-17]

I used to own an Aero A-2 with a silk lining-I picked it up from the sale page. They were easy to spot as the silk lining was a rust colour ('I can tell that's an Aero 'cos it's got that orange lining ', I was once told-I quite liked it). Other than that there wasn't much to tell it from cotton-maybe a bit slicker, but I'd read Marc Weinshenker's review as well so perhaps I was influenced by that. The lining around the collar certainly wore out quicker than the cotton lining on my ELC A-2- that's not intended as a criticism of Aero's workmanship, which was superb as always. However, the silk wore through far more quickly in places like seams, where there was a slight prominence underneath. I imagine this would have come to light pretty quickly when in use by pilots-I wonder if that influenced the decision to switch to cotton?

 

[33-1729]

Hopefully Marc can shed more light on the letter,

"the use of silk in flying jackets had been discontinued"

Here's a question for those with more expertise on "pre 1939 non leather USAC flight Jackets" than I have.............How many and which used Silk in their manufacture? I can't imagine any use other than for lining but I'm very willing to be corrected

Quick update:

Received a note back from Mr. Weinshenker and the 1939 Wright Field letter isn’t immediately available (in storage), so it’s retrieval may be quite a ways out. Will keep everyone posted when I hear more.