RAF Flying Clothing post war colours & equipment

[DavidWomby]

Great info.. Thanks, Tony.

David

[TeeELL]

You are welcome David.
I am getting the info together for the 60’s next.

[JamesPerrin]

Cool that they let you keep some of this gear.

[TeeELL]

James,
the Mk4 helmet I have was built for me by the safety equipment section, at the time the Mk10 helmet was being issued and the Mk4 helmets and components were surplus so my helmet was not an ‘official issue’ and therefor not accountable. The various masks I have come from flying civilian registered ex-mil aircraft. As for the flying suits, they are ‘clothing’ so do not get recycled so the stores were happy to write them off, as with the gloves and boots.

[TeeELL]

FLYING CLOTHING 1960’s

For the early part of the 1960s you can ‘roll over’ the flying equipment from the 1950s.

Flying Helmets
For much of the decade the Mk1/G-type combination continued in use. The G-type inner changed from a light blue/grey colour to olive green and the Mk1 shell could be painted to match operations so green helmets for tactical aircraft aircrew whilst Lightning pilots might continue with the reflective (cooler) silver/grey or possibly white. Aerobatic team members might have adopted colours appropriate to their team colours. When you read about the Mk2A you will, perhaps, understand why the Mk1 remained popular.

Late in the mid 60’s the Mk2 helmet was introduced. The helmet was one piece, heavier and much larger overall than the Mk1. It was not overly popular despite offering much improved noise attenuation and crash protection. The earpieces were gel filled (very unpleasant when they split!) and the intercom earphones were fitted either side of the rear of the helmet (2 bulges that can be seen in photos) the sound being fed along tubes to the earpieces - OK until they filled with perspiration. The significant identity feature of the Mk2A was the yellow visor operating bar across the front of the helmet. At the time the primary ejection seat operating handle was the top one which, when pulled, bought down a face blind and also caused the visor operating bar to drop the visor.
The Mk2A came in white - no idea if they were painted.



The oxygen mask was the grey H-type for aircraft with basic recuperator type systems (eg Jet Provost T Mk3 & 4, Vamoire T11), most aircraft had high pressure ‘demand’ systems and used the P/Q mask, black carapace over a softer grey/flesh rubber inner.

Flying suits were modernised although medium grey remained the colour of the cloth. Towards the end of the decade a lighter weight flying suit was introduced in green.



The LSJ remained orange/yellow

Flying boots were black although the ‘65? Pattern boot was now slimmer and worn under the flying suit legs.

Flying gloves - off white.

The aircrew shirt was a cotton shirt with long tails and was light blue/grey.

[DavidWomby]

Thanks, for all this, Tony. There's some good colour photos of aircrew of the 50s/60s on this page. https://www.vintag.es/2021/11/royal-air-force.html

David

[TeeELL]

Thank you David,
I’ve seen a couple of the photos but not that site. I commend anyone interested in getting their model aircrew correctly attired for the period take a look through the photos. Ones I found particularly interesting:
Crew in a Vampire showing that ‘blue ejection seat straps’ had appeared, the Mk1 bone dome etc
Pilot in a Lightning wearing a Mk2A helmet (1965)
V-bomber crew ‘scrambling’ all wearing their SD Caps or berets!

Very informative.

[TeeELL]

FLYING CLOTHING 1970’s

This decade marks the start if my 37 year flying career in the RAF.

Flying helmet:
The principle helmet for the first 3-4 years of this decade remained the Mk2A. The V-Force aircrew continued to wear (carry) the Mk1 over type-G inner, which was olive green. It was impossible for the pilots to wear the Mk2A in the Vulcan due to the size of the helmet and the limited room in the cockpit.
I cannot remember quite when, but I think that early in the 70’s the Mk1 was no longer authorised for use in fast-jets.
This was a decade of exciting aviation opportunities for fast-jet aircrew with the Phantom, Buccaneer, Harrier and Jaguar newly acquired and the Lightning still in use.
In the mid 70’s the limitations if the Mk2A were addressed and the Mk3 helmet was introduced with a variety of sub-types according to use. The helmet was smaller overall, had a side mounted operating system for the visor(s) (a version with the Mk1 type center bar visor system was in use, for helicopters perhaps?).
Oxygen masks continued to be the type H for the JP 3/4 but the P/Q type was predominant (in fact the P/Q mask was modified to suit the ‘recuperator oxygen system’ of the JP, but I don’t know when)

Flying suits were mid grey (heavy weight) or olive green (light weight) early in the decade with the grey flying suit being withdrawn around 1973/74.

Aircrew shirt, the traditional style shirt was replaced with the green turtle/roll neck a piece of flying kit that was to be in use for the next 4 decades! It was introduced to try and minimise neck injury from Lead spatter from the canopy MDC.

LSJ, the yellow/orange MaeWest was replaced with a smaller jacket with olive green stoles. The reason was a combination of reasons:
1. Tactical need for the Harrier force
2. The cover protected the inflatable stole from puncture from lead spatter from MDC
3. I think the inflatable stole material was a man made product and would pack tighter

Flying boots remained the popular black 1965 pattern although a light weight boot was introduced in a tan colour.

Flying gloves remained ‘white’ although the Harrier force received olive green gloves.



Mk 3B Helmet with the center track type visor as seen on the Mk1




Mk 3C twin visor helmet as used by fast jet aircrew. This helmet had a cloth visor cover to protect the visor(s) from damage when not being worn. The cover was supposed to be positioned immediately behind the visor to prevent lead spatter hitting the face.

[TeeELL]

This is from the RAF website and shows the current flying equipment worn by a RAFAT pilot:



Change the colour of the flying suit and you’ve got equipment worn by Hawk T2 pilots.
With a few changes:



You have the flying equipment of a Typhoon/Lightning 2 pilot.

Note that the ‘G-pants’ are now the same colour as the Mk16 Flying suit and the Typhoon pilot is wearing an immersion suit, although exactly what type I cannot say - it certainly isn’t an ‘external’ type so must be a new variation on the ‘internal’ suit. (I can’t remember if I had one of the earlier versions tbh?).

And look at the size of that Typhoon flying helmet compared to the Mk10!

[skypirate]

Brilliant, thanks, Tony!

David

[skypirate]

Great reference to come back to, Tony!
For my 1/72 RAF Vampire pilot: silver-grey helmet, gloss black visor (moulded on my spare pilot figure), pale olive drab mask and medium grey flight suit.

Cheers,

David

[TeeELL]

Great reference to come back to, Tony!
For my 1/72 RAF Vampire pilot: silver-grey helmet, gloss black visor (moulded on my spare pilot figure), pale olive drab mask and medium grey flight suit.

Cheers,

David

David,
I would say, yes that is correct. The LSJ would be a yellow/orange colour. The ‘H-type’ oxygen mask is more a grey colour with a hint of green.

The earlier flight suits were blue/grey. In this photo is a a pressure breathing mask (possibly Canberra?) that pre-dates the P/Q mask, but not likely to be used on the Vampire.

[skypirate]

Thanks, Tony,
I found your response after I buttoned up the pilot!
Not much can be seen under the thick Heller Vampire hood, but I will try for the orange LSJ.

Cheers,

David

[TeeELL]

David,
I give you Vampire:

Points if note - the grey flannel scarves (I was issued with 2 of those), the ‘gauntlet style’ gloves and, possibly, they are wearing the grey ‘cold weather’ flying jacket (again, I was issued one in 1971).
One the seat, a MB Mk2 can be seen the seat straps (blue) and the parachute straps (beige).





Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

For the visor, consider painting the helmet silver/grey and use several coats of Tamiya ‘smoke’ to create the appearance of a transparent visor, finish with a coat of clear lacquer or Klear?

[skypirate]

Wow! Top stuff, Tony, thank you.
I've now done the orange LSJ. I shall go back to it and try to add some of this detail too. And save these pics!

Cheers,

David