![]() ![]() The uniform was still Army, but the adornments made it unmistakably AAF. There were sleeve patches for aviation specialists and dangling badges for mechanics and technicians. More than a dozen types of wings existed. Besides their lapel pins, AAF members could wear the patch of the Air Corps on one shoulder and that of a numbered air force on the other. Replicas now cost up to $250.)īy 1939, the Army Air Forces had authorized an array of distinctive insignia. (The jacket was retired after World War II, but it made a comeback in the 1980s, not only in the Air Force but also in the civilian market. The aviators fell in love with the A-2 jacket, and the Army spent the next decade trying to convince them it wasn’t part of the service uniform. In the early 1930s, the Air Corps introduced a light, horsehide jacket that created a whole new set of problems. When enclosed cockpits gave flyers something like a shirtsleeves environment, they were more willing to fly in prescribed uniforms. ![]() Three years later, when Question Mark set a week-long endurance record, Captain Eaker and other crew members wore plus fours, baggy knickers favored by golfers. Ira Eaker landed in Rio de Janeiro in helmet, goggles, and shorts. ![]() On the Army’s 1926 goodwill flight to Latin America, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, wore pins bearing the emblems of their wartime squadrons.īetween the wars, pilots continued to fly in whatever mixture of military and civilian clothing served the purpose. Some mixed RAF flight caps and blouses with their US uniforms. Those who flew with British or French forces wore their foreign wings as well. The Air Service approved silver wings for pilots, observers, and balloonists. ![]() By war’s end, the flags were gone altogether and only the winged propeller remained, later to become the official Air Corps insignia. These became so popular that the Army authorized them. By 1917, insignia makers were bootlegging collar insignia with a winged propeller superimposed on the crossed flags of the Signal Corps. In combat zones, at least, the Army chose not to notice if a pursuit pilot wore his flight boots and woolen muffler into the mess.Įven the regulation uniform took on a distinctive, if not always legal, Air Service flavor. By World War I, however, they were mixing bits of flight gear with their service uniforms. On the ground, airmen conformed fairly well to regulations. What the Army didn’t buy for them, military flyers bought on their own. Soon civilian garment makers were offering a full line of gear designed specifically for aviators. To guard against these perils, pilots adopted the goggles used by race drivers and the helmets worn by football players and motorcyclists. In the cold, they piled on sweaters, hunting jackets, and even fur coats.įlying posed unique hazards, such as colliding with flying bugs and being pitched out of the machine head first. In warm weather, many preferred light civilian clothes. The old Army uniform, with leg-hugging breeches and high-necked blouse, was adequate to a point, but it had its limitations. The first airmen simply wanted something practical to wear in their open-frame aircraft. In a sense, the “aviator look” had become a metaphor for their struggle for independence. From the beginning of military aviation, flyers outfitted themselves in ways that distressed their ground-bound superiors. That trend began long before World War II. As one general officer put it, “the exigencies of war and undesirable practices have permitted officers to deviate from a prescribed uniform to the point where they have been designing their own and the name ‘uniform’ has lost much of its meaning.” Ironically, that ill-fated uniform had grown out of the Air Force’s effort to correct the unmilitary state of dress that had prevailed in the old Army Air Forces. After going through a brief trial run, the Air Force gave the outfit a decent burial. Several generals said they wouldn’t be caught dead in the thing. Wives said that, just to keep it presentable, it had to be washed and ironed every night. Noncoms fumed that the outfit made them look like oversized Boy Scouts. In the field, particularly on stocky men with knobby knees, it looked ludicrous. When freshly pressed, the outfit didn’t look bad on the models in the uniform manual. ![]()
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