Famous People in Flight Jackets

[Doctor Damage]

Tyrone Power.

 

[MeachamLake]

Not exactly a famous person, but certainly very relevant pop culture...here's another video game one. My customised multiplayer character in Call of Duty WW2...it's a fantastic game, really good fun!

 

[Doctor Damage]

^ wow that's extremely detailed, nice!

 

[Doctor Damage]

Interesting link with some nice old photos from a USAF pilot training course in 1950.

http://lmstandish.home3.org/Old-times/pilot-training.htm

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Trenchfriend]

Holy cow!

 

[GHarris]

"Aquaman" (played by Jason Momoa) wears an Irvin jacket for a couple of minutes in the recent "Justice League" film. Looked to be a midwar version (what Aero call "Battle of Britain" and Eastman call the "1942 pattern"), rather than the many-seamed late-war or minimal-seamed pre-war variety. Don't have much of an eye for judging its authenticity beyond that. It looked decent though. Slightly aged/worn. With long untidy hair he was carrying off a "scruffy beefcake" look reasonably well.

I was wearing my own Irvin as I sat watching the film in Newark cinema, the day after its release, so I couldn't help but smile at the surprise when the scene started. Folks must have thought I was some bizarrely OTT fanboy when they saw me standing outside the cinema afterwards.

No screenshot to share at present, I'm afraid... still too soon after cinema release to find any... and the film was passable but unremarkable so I doubt I'll be buying the DVD later on just to take a photo!

 

[galvestonokie]

Dr. Damage: was the pic of Paul Newman in the G-1 from a movie? great pic!

 

[Doctor Damage]

Dr. Damage: was the pic of Paul Newman in the G-1 from a movie? great pic!

looks like it's just a publicity photo, here's another

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Doctor Damage]

Patton & Fake Patton.

 

[Technonut]

Unidentified actor sporting an A-2 from a 1950's 'Honeymooners' episode with Jackie Gleason:

 

[Doctor Damage]

here's a long & detailed article on learning to fly USAF C-5... it's a must read for anyone interested in this stuff

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/what-it-is-like-to-fly-the-americas-biggest-jet-the-ga-1727650088

 

[kowalski]

Cezary Gmyz ;Polish journalist correspondent in Berlin

 

[Atticus Finch]

From the days when folks wore military outerwear...not as a fashion statement...but because it was warm, comfortable and inexpensive. It’s 1963 in Mississippi. Civil Rights activist, E. W. Steptoe, in a well-worn B-15. Hard to tell if it a “D” or a green “C”.

AF

 

[Doctor Damage]

^ That's a great photo, Atticus!

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Atticus Finch]

It’s 1963 in Mississippi and you’re at a meeting of local Civil Rights activists. At least three of the attendees are wearing old military jackets. They’re not trying to appear fashionable or paramilitary. They’re just wearing surplus coats because they’re warm, tough and inexpensive. In fact, the two wearing old field jackets are probably veterans.

The man in the back is wearing a later model B-15...probably an unmodified D. He’s C.W. Steptoe and he’s a local dairy farmer. In 1963, he’s already in his fifties and probably too old to have been in the Air Force eight years earlier when B-15Ds were being issued. The man in the middle is Roosevelt Lee and he’s wearing a M-51. In another photo, his jacket’s zipper is visible at his collar.

I believe the other man (closer to the camera) could be wearing something a bit more interesting. It could be an USAF issued M-43. The jacket appears to have the “internal” drawstring of an M-43. The M-51’s drawstring ties outside of the jacket shell. Also, the breast pocket flaps appear to be very pointed...more pointed than those of a M-51. Finally...and this is difficult to determine for sure...it appears that the jacket lacks a zipper, instead, buttoning at the front. Again...we’re talking M-43, not M-51.

Of course...and it isn’t likely...but his jacket could also be a M-50. We’ll never know because, externally, there’s no difference between a M-43 and a M-50. The difference between those jackets was the liner. The M-43 had a separate jacket that was worn as a liner. The M-50 had a button-in liner, similar to the one in the M-51. In fact, the first M-50s were M-43 shells that had been retrofitted with interior buttons to receive the new M-50 liner.

Either way, his right epaulette has come unbuttoned. It hangs haphazardly down his arm, partially obscuring his airman’s stripes.

AF

 

[thor]

Admiral Richard E. Byrd at the South Pole in his M-422a.