Artwork : ArchiveNo00170

Flying Jacket 1943


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Artefact

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Contributor

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ContributionForm
Contributor Name D-Day Museum
Contributor Image a.whitmarsh_dday.jpg
Profession

Location Southsea
Collection Date 29.09.08 10.17am
Artefact Name Flying Jacket
Artefact Description Made of leather (outside) with woollen lining.
Fair condition. Brown in colour.
Artefact Date 1943
Artefact Stored In display case – D-Day story
Artefact Form

Artefact Image 00170_fly_jac_ddayjpg.jpg
Sample Taken Wool from inside-left of lining
Sample Image

History of Artefact The jacket had a woollen lining to keep personnel warm because the planes flew very high. The aircraft did not have a heating system. The boots worn also had woollen linings for the same reason. This is an RAF jacket – British and standard of the time. It could have been made between 1939-1945. The figure / model in the museum wearing the jacket is dressed as a fighter pilot who would have flown a smaller aircraft ie. a Spitfire. It is has been in the museum since 1984. RAF airmen were also issued with electrically-heated clothing.
Jackets like this would have been worn by all aircrew not just the pilot. If an airman was likely to fly at higher altitude, where it would be colder than lower down, he would probably have worn warmer clothing rather than just the jacket i.e. an all in one suit. At its greatest size during WW2, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) totalled around 1.1 million people. Only a small proportion would have been aircrew however, and most would have had supporting roles in the ground.
Historian Andrew Whitmarsh
Previous Owners Unknown
Special Memories ‘The nearest RAF airfield to Portsmouth would have been Thorney Island, near Chichester.’ Andrew Whitmarsh
Artwork Image 00170_WEB.jpg

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