LOST WORLDS
0004
B-2 WINTER FLIGHT JACKET
Army Air Corps, 1931-33
Original Contractor: J.A. Dubow Mfg. Co.
Russet Horsehide Leather with Lamb Shearling Collar, Full Alpaca Wool Lining
$2750.00.
38-48 Regular.
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CUSTOM B-2 Flight Jacket
NOS 1930s Mouton Collar
NOS Crown Zippers
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Arguably the most
complicated Flight Jacket that LOST WORLDS makes and one of the most
beautiful and unique. Famous, unique LOST WORLDS exclusive heavyweight chrome-tanned Russet Horsehide,
indestructible, with water resistance that must be worn to be believed. No
spotting, running, fading, mottling here -- for men, not boys. Genuine 100%
genuine Alpaca Wool Lining, legendary for comfort, warmth and hand -- topcoat
weight. Huge, dense genuine (of course) Lamb Shearling Mouton Collar.
D erived from full length leather flight suits of the
1920s, the rare B-2 was procured for only two years by the AAC before replacement by the
famed B-3. Doubtless the reasons were warmth, labor intensity and cost. The
all-sheepskin B-3 was warmer, easier and cheaper to make. The B-2 hearkens back
to the open cockpit age. Closed cockpits and increased altitude required warmer
gear.
Significant areas of
the B-2 are double-stitched, with the complex zippered sleeves requiring extreme skill
and time. Although we own a Pfaff double needle, our peerless craftsmen use their single needle machines and work by eye on the
rows of double stitching. Easier to control the tight stitching on our firm,
"attitudinal" Horsehide -- with a mind of its own, no shrinking violet.
Yet the construction
symmetry and perfection will astonish you. The shots above should give some
indication. This is a production piece ready to ship, not a prima donna
only-for-photography sample! We have none of those. Nor need them. What you see
is what you get, but what you get is so much more than what you see.
Interestingly the
famous, later RAF IRVIN shares all features with the AAC B-2, substituting Sheepskin
for the Horsehide construction of the latter. Note too the affinity between the
B-2 and subsequent motorcycle jacket designs. Rather inexplicably, all surviving
B-2s lack the chest pocket, its having been removed. We conjecture that either it
was too difficult to manage the pocket in largely open cockpit aircraft of the
period or the pocket was deemed an interference with the airman's parachute
rigging. In any case the pocket is always gone, but the stitch marks are there
in the few originals that have survived.
LOST WORLDS, of
course, retains the original pocket, as well as the elastic headset retaining
straps behind the beautiful, oversized Mouton/Horsehide Collar. Donning
this extraordinary Jacket transports one to a different era and a different
world. Its imposing presence will make it the most elaborately complex and
detailed Jacket you will ever own.
Drum-dyed
Chrome-Tanned Heavyweight Horsehide; 26oz. Pure Alpaca Wool Lining, Belted,
Nickel or Brass Talon Zipper, Nipple Collar Snaps, Riveted Waist Tabs.
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