Some people are never happy. But maybe this will cheer up a few folks...
Alpha apparently offers (in Japan) a 1950s style MA-1 with 50% wool 45% cotton 5% nylon insulation. It's clearly not a high-end repro, but if they sold them here I'd get one for sure and probably live happily ever after. The jacket's code is TA1054, in grey or blue. If nothing else it demonstrates that Alpha could do a mid-range repro if they wanted to.
Valley Apparel, which has government contracts, is now in the nylon business:
http://valleyapparel.net/product-category/commercial-2/
US Wings is selling their MA-1 and nylon CWU. Although these are clearly civilian jackets, it's nice that they're made in the USA.
Are you looking at the German website? They have completely different models on the German website than the U.S. website. Please specify.Hi all
I'm thinking of buying the Alpha MA1 flight jacket but am a little bit confussed.
I have seen a couple of different versions on the site I'm thinking of using one is the standard sage green version and the other is a 2015 model that is lighter shade of green.
my question is apart from the colours which model is more accurate to the original MA1? and why change colours for one year?
also are these good copies and worth the £100 price tag
cheers stu
Interesting. I'm not sure I realized there really was a G series MA-1. I was under the impression that the F-series "ground crew" version was the last of the military MA-1s. But I'm guessing it was a short run. I googled around for a minute and could only find original tags from 1988...and, by then, nomex CWUs had been around for a decade. That old 1950s jacket died hard, didn't it?Interested persons can download the mil-spec document for MA-1 jackets, G contract, from the link below. Press the big orange button and it downloads a PDF. I've done this and the download is kosher. Amazingly, the document is dated 1979 with an update in 1988!
http://everyspec.com/MIL-SPECS/MIL-SPECS-MIL-J/MIL-J-8279G_9439/
cheers mate some of these sites do confuse the buyers don't they lolSome of these surplus and army/navy stores are bad at updating their websites. The first link is the most accurate in terms of photos. The second link is "old" Alpha photos from a few years back. Same jacket, different photos.
I'm also surprised that they kept updating the specs for these jackets at such a late date. If you look earlier in this thread and others you'll see a mil-spec document for L2B jackets dated 1979 and N2B jackets dated 1983. Again, why such late dates? Surely the nomex CWU jackets were being regularly issued that point and I doubt that ground crew were being issued those jackets in any numbers, especially in the 1980s. Perhaps it was just bureaucratic inertia that kept updating specs, even though in practice there was no point.Interesting. I'm not sure I realized there really was a G series MA-1. I was under the impression that the F-series "ground crew" version was the last of the military MA-1s. But I'm guessing it was a short run. I googled around for a minute and could only find original tags from 1988...and, by then, nomex CWUs had been around for a decade. That old 1950s jacket died hard, didn't it?
AF
It's astonishing (to me) that they were still making jackets at those dates, since they were obsolete by a long time. I can see keeping the N3B around since there would always be a need for a heavy parka. Weird. I've seen no photographic evidence, but nobody takes photos of ground crew, ha haI've got both an Alpha service issue L-2B ('79 Ground Crew) and Alpha '93
Service issue N-2B.
I did own a late Ground Crew MA-1 ('90's I think) but moved it on due to poor fit.
Toys McCoyLooks like some company in Japan did a copy of the McQueen MA-1 from "The Hunter". It looks like they got the details right, including grey knits. Sold out, of course. It looks like an Alpha, which makes me think they could do one cheap if they wanted to.
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/klax-on/item/tmj1520/