Aviator fur

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The aviator's fur is the fur clothing worn by the pilot and his companions in the pilot's cabins, which were initially still open and were unheated until the end of the Second World War . The fur was worn inside with the hair because of the better warmth. In the beginning it was still fur-lined raincoats , but the overalls and jacket shapes were soon preferred. The fur material was usually sheep or lambskin . The shapes of these utility furs are still finding their way into general fashion today under the names commonly used in the aviation and textile industries , such as flight jackets , pilot jackets or bomber jackets .

history

As motorized aviation began to develop at the beginning of the 20th century, it was more and more common for pilots to move in their cockpits, which were initially open, at heights and in climatic conditions that required suitably warm clothing. A special style of flight attire began during the First World War (1914–1918). As functional clothing , it had to meet certain conditions. It should have enough pockets, warm well and, especially because of the wind, it should be tight around the edges. The pilot's essential clothing was the fur-lined flight suit, some versions of which could later be heated electrically, as well as a helmet and glasses. In the first few years the flight crew consisted only of the pilot. As the technical complexity of aircraft and flight operations increased, a second pilot and later other people such as flight engineers, radio operators or navigators were added. The flight decks of today's commercial aircraft are generally fully air-conditioned.

  • In "a fur-lined leather flight suit, NACA test pilot Paul King prepares for take-off with a Vought VE-7 " (1925)

  • "A US Air Force" B-29 Superfort "pilot with the 98th bomber in Japan is in his protective clothing ready for another bomb attack on communist targets in North Korea " (1953)

The most important and identity-creating item of clothing for the aviator was his leather jacket . It was part of the standard equipment of the German army, but not part of the official uniform. The fur-lined overall was pulled over it, along with leg protection, a leather helmet, protective goggles as well as a scarf and fur-lined gloves. Overall, there was a great resemblance to the equipment used by drivers at the time .

The pilots of the British Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service gave impetus to the shape of the fur clothing worn by pilots from other countries . They wore aviator hats made of fur, fur-lined helmets, fur gloves, fur boots, fur ear protectors and even fur masks, and there was also fur underwear. The Italian "Società anonima für Furs" offered a "complete suit", especially for pilots, an overall that was worn under the clothes. Fur collars were not yet part of the equipment, but many airmen had them worked on. Others wore shaggy fur coats that could be seen to have emerged from improvisation.

The most important use of fur originated as lining for the most famous and longest lasting of all flight attire, the Sidcot suit . It was designed by pilot Sidney Cotton . In 1917 he allegedly made the discovery while flying in a dirty, greasy cloth overalls that it kept him warm while his colleagues were freezing at the same time. Thereupon he designed a suit with a thin fur lining, fur collar and fur parts on the neck and cuffs, which, unlike the Italians, could be worn without additional clothing. For the fabric cover, he used the impregnated Burberry gabardine , which the army also used for their trench coats . The cut corresponded to the overall known to us as a blue man . The company Robinson & Cleaver took over the production . It successfully passed all tests and the first pilots acquired it. It was already in general use at the end of 1917, and the Luftwaffe ordered 1,000 units in November at the earliest possible date. In various versions, the Sidcot was popular with pilots between 1918 and 1939. In a modernized form in 1940, it was still worn a lot in the Second World War (1938–1945) in the Battle of Britain and other war missions. It now had zippers and the fabric was fireproof. The fur lining had been replaced with kapok . What remained, however, was the detachable fur collar. Further developed textiles replaced the materials and the previous variety of designs that were used up until then. However, no other aviator clothing remained as popular as the fur-lined sidcot for such a long time.

Sheepskin and shearling, the fur of sheep that had been sheared during their lifetime, was the material of a new form of pilot's service jacket, including a uniform jacket of the Royal Air Force during World War II. Unlike the full-body suits, the blouson-style jacket could also be worn outside of work. Developed by the American aerial acrobat and skydiver pioneer Leslie Irvin , the Irvin jacket and trousers made of napped sheepskin were designed between the two world wars. They were produced in the UK factory established by Irvin in 1926. The Irvin jackets had no pockets, were very warm, but also heavy and restricted freedom of movement. They served as a template for the jackets of the US Army Air Corps: Since May 8, 1934, these were equipped with the sheepskin jackets B-3, which were called "bomber jacket" in English because they were only intended for the bomber crews and not for Fighter pilots. There was also the matching sheepskin trousers "Type A-3". In contrast to the British Irvin jackets, the “B-3” is partially reinforced on the outside with horse leather . The shorter "B-6 Flight Jacket" developed shortly afterwards was made of thinner sheepskin. The "D-1" model was actually only intended for the ground crew. Its fur was sheared deeper than that of the "B-6", the version was also worn as a summer jacket by the aviators.

The type "ANJ-4" was the last sheepskin jacket of the US Navy and the United States Army Air Forces , it was introduced in 1943. The jacket was a little thinner than the B-3 and had two flap pockets at the front and horse leather reinforcements on all particularly stressed parts. They were available in three versions, which only differed in small details. Among other things, the later version had a small leather triangle sewn onto the chest, to which the oxygen mask could be clamped when not in use, and two small buttons at the lower end of the zipper. The ANJ-4 was very easy to wear and more practical than the heavy B-3 and immediately became the favorite among the sheepskin jackets of the bomber crews. However, the rather complicated construction turned out to be very costly, and production of this model was discontinued as early as 1944. A disadvantage of the sheepskin jackets was that if the leather jackets got damp from rain or sweat and the plane rose to greater heights, the water would freeze. In 1944, the long-range Boeing B-29 bomber was introduced, which for the first time had a heated pressurized cabin. Fabric jackets gradually replaced the sheepskin jackets of the crews of the other types of aircraft. Finally, the fur collar also disappeared, as it was said, because it was often in the way of the parachute lines.

During the Second World War, it was not only in Great Britain that furriers switched all or part of their production to military furs. The London company Calman Furs was very soon working on fur-lined flight suits instead of the previous fashion furs. Founded in 1823 in London fur finishing operation CW Martin & Sons , actually on Seal , the skins of fur seals specialized, able to draw on experience from the First World War. At that time it had been very difficult to find a machine for shearing shaggy goat skins, which were intended for the clothing of soldiers in Flanders. This time too, Martin & Sons and other companies worked in voluntary shifts around the clock to tan and refine lambskins on behalf of the Royal Air Force.

Leather aviator jacket with a lambskin collar for the winner of the " Barron Hilton Cup " gliding competition (2008)

The important American fur trader Motty Eitingon bought some lambskin towards the end of the war, which was in great demand for military clothing. In 1946 he set up a production chain for civilian lambskin clothing, which was probably unique in its scope. He sold the hair that resulted from shearing in a contract to the army for lining flight jackets. His granddaughter Mary Kay-Wilmers later wrote, "He was always on the side of the bigger businesses and wasn't particularly interested in the production of the flight jackets."

  • Melli Beese , first German female motorized pilot, in a fur overall (1911)

  • "Fur jacket and hood of the hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Matvejewitsch Didenko"

  • Lieutenant Brownrigg in flight jacket, Royal Navy (World War II)

  • Machines for Wehrmacht fur clothing and aviator fur cleaning (advert, Leipzig 1941)

The aviator fur in fashion

Gabriele D'Annunzio in a civil lamb jacket (graphic, 1930)

The aviator jackets found their way into civilian fashion as “pilot jackets” or “bomber jackets”, especially after the end of the Second World War. Especially in times when designers prefer fashion in a functional style or in a military look , they are also part of fur fashion. As fur jackets with the hair facing outwards, they are also offered in higher price ranges than lambskin, such as fox fur or mink fur . In the case of the outer fur, in addition to the names taken from the aviator clothing, only the style of the aviator jacket is adopted, possibly also the type of closure with a buckle on the blouson hem, with the velouted and above all the napped lambskin jacket largely the entire look. The blouson suit, which is referred to in fashion as “battle dress” and modeled on the English pilot's uniform, probably had no equivalent in civil fur fashion.

Anna Municchi wrote about the Italian writer and pilot Gabriele D'Annunzio : “They were sports jackets that always showed a little fur on the outside and D'Annunzio, who was a great soldier, loved the uniform very much, and he wore it with him this somewhat provincial delicacy of us provincial Italians, provincial like me - also off duty and like a select elegant gentleman (also in the more modest and inconspicuous sense of being able to wear good clothes). Unfortunately he was very small, but he was handsome and when he started talking he was great, greater than everyone else ”.

In 1967, Fendi sent models with pilot suits made of white lambskin trimmed with nappa leather onto the catwalk.

The flight jacket was still considered a particularly masculine attribute in later times. A film review in 2018 said: "In» Safari - Match Me If You Can «, Justus von Dohnányi gives the tram driver in pilot's fur to get young women to bed [...]."

  • Baseball player Norihiro Nakamura
    (Japan, 2001)

  • Journalist Steffo Törnquist
    (Sweden, 2003)

  • (Manchester, 2018)

See also

Web links

Commons : Aviator Pelts  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mario Josef Gerhard Schuivens: The historical development of the cockpit instrumentation of commercial aircraft . Technical University of Munich Faculty TUM School of Education, dissertation dated April 8, 2014. Last accessed November 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Gabriele Mentges: Leather and other cool materials - On the relationship between clothes, body and technology (PDF). In: Critical Reports. 4/00, p. 44. Last accessed November 13, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b c Anna Municchi: The man in the fur coat. Zanfi Editori, Modena 1988, ISBN 88-85168-18-3 , pp. 45-46, 68, 90.
  4. ↑ a b c Elizabeth Ewing: Fur in Dress. BT Batsford Ltd, London 1981, pp. 125-126, 131-132 (English).
  5. ↑ a b c Alpha Industries: History ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Neu-Isenburg, (English). Last accessed April 11, 2019.
  6. ^ Philipp Löwe: Bomber jackets. Bad luck, you Nazis - it belongs to all of us . Spiegel online, May 17, 2016. Last accessed November 19, 2018.
  7. ^ CW Martin & Sons, Ltd., 1823-1953. London 1953; Pp. 31, 54, 56.
  8. ↑ Mary Kay Wilmers : The Eitingons - A Twentierth Century Story. Faber and Faber Ltd., London 2010, ISBN 978-0-571-23473-8 , p. 321 (English).
  9. ↑ Alfons Hofer: Textile and Model Lexicon. 7th edition, Volume 1, Deutscher Fachverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, keyword “Battle Dress”. ISBN 3-87150-518-8 , p. 64.
  10. ↑ BLÖ: Safari . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. SZ Special Film Festival Munich. June 28, 2018. Last accessed November 19, 2018.