B-Man2
Well-Known Member
Hey Guys 
Its been a slow Sunday sitting around doing nothing so I thought that I would do a quick comparison of the original Aero of Beacon NY 15142P contract and the same repro of that jacket made 78 years later by Aero of Scotland . First off before we get started, a little disclaimer just for clarification purposes. This posting is simply to show some of the similarities and differences between the original A2 of that contract and the repro of the same contract, for those of us who may not have had an opportunity to see or handle an original Aero A2 jacket .It is in no way a negative summation on the accuracy or quality of Aero of Scotland’s efforts at reproducing the original Aero 15142P jacket .
Now with that in mind let’s begin.
The original Aero 15142P contract was awarded to Aero Leather Clothing Company of Beacon NY, on March 28th, 1942. The contract called for 50,000 A2 jackets to be delivered to the USAAF at a price of $8.25 per jacket . At a total contract price of $412,500. This was the sixth of seven contracts issued to Aero Leather. While the original contract was for Horsehide there is a great deal of consensus that cowhide was used on this contract as well. At this point let me credit Gary Eastman of Eastman Leather Company for his amazing research and his book “Type A2 Flight Jacket Identification Manual “ If you haven’t purchased this book yet, I suggest you put it on your Christmas List to Santa as it is probably the best book available today on the A2 Flight Jacket . Now pictured below are the original and repro of the 15142P jacket being reviewed .
ORIGINAL
REPRODUCTION
ORIGINAL
REPRODUCTION
Both jackets are a size 46 so when we get to the measurements section, that makes it easy for us to compare the wartime size with the current day reproduction size.
COLLAR
This contract in its original form was made without a collar stand . Similarly the Aero of Scotland repro was also made without a collar stand . The collars of both jackets are just about identical in size and dimensions.
ZIPS
Interestingly this contract jacket came with the possibility of 3 different zips . An M-41 Crown . An M-41 Model Talon and an M-40 Kwik Fantail zip. The original here has the M-41 Talon and the repro has a repro of that zip.
SNAPS
The original contract has large ring stud snaps by United Carr. The repro has large ring stud snaps that are approximate reproductions of the United Carr snaps and work very well.
Its been a slow Sunday sitting around doing nothing so I thought that I would do a quick comparison of the original Aero of Beacon NY 15142P contract and the same repro of that jacket made 78 years later by Aero of Scotland . First off before we get started, a little disclaimer just for clarification purposes. This posting is simply to show some of the similarities and differences between the original A2 of that contract and the repro of the same contract, for those of us who may not have had an opportunity to see or handle an original Aero A2 jacket .It is in no way a negative summation on the accuracy or quality of Aero of Scotland’s efforts at reproducing the original Aero 15142P jacket .
Now with that in mind let’s begin.
The original Aero 15142P contract was awarded to Aero Leather Clothing Company of Beacon NY, on March 28th, 1942. The contract called for 50,000 A2 jackets to be delivered to the USAAF at a price of $8.25 per jacket . At a total contract price of $412,500. This was the sixth of seven contracts issued to Aero Leather. While the original contract was for Horsehide there is a great deal of consensus that cowhide was used on this contract as well. At this point let me credit Gary Eastman of Eastman Leather Company for his amazing research and his book “Type A2 Flight Jacket Identification Manual “ If you haven’t purchased this book yet, I suggest you put it on your Christmas List to Santa as it is probably the best book available today on the A2 Flight Jacket . Now pictured below are the original and repro of the 15142P jacket being reviewed .
ORIGINAL
ORIGINAL
REPRODUCTION
COLLAR
This contract in its original form was made without a collar stand . Similarly the Aero of Scotland repro was also made without a collar stand . The collars of both jackets are just about identical in size and dimensions.
ZIPS
Interestingly this contract jacket came with the possibility of 3 different zips . An M-41 Crown . An M-41 Model Talon and an M-40 Kwik Fantail zip. The original here has the M-41 Talon and the repro has a repro of that zip.
SNAPS
The original contract has large ring stud snaps by United Carr. The repro has large ring stud snaps that are approximate reproductions of the United Carr snaps and work very well.
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