Aviator Jackets

Beginning in the early 1980s, Aviator Jackets passed into pop culture in such movies as To Live and Die in LA and Top Gun.  In the former, one of the bad guys throughout the movie is seen to wear the military style flight jacket (a nylon version of the MA-1) while wheeling an Ithaca shotgun.  And, in Top Gun, Tom Cruise helps to popularize another model of an aviator jacket (variation of the G1 leather flight jacket).

While still worn by military servicemembers, the jackets had a very important role in early military aviation.  Beginning in World War I, as most aircraft had open cockpits, warm clothing was essential even at the relatively low altitudes the aircraft flew.  Legend has it that English pilots adopted a long leather coat and thus the life of the aviator jacket began.

Between World War One and Two, the leather flight jacket with the sheepskin lining was developed and adopted.  Although World War II saw very few open cockpit aircraft (compared to the numbers of enclosed), the altitude that these un-insulated aircraft would reach made the interiors very cold.  Heavy bombing would probably not been possible without insulated clothing like the flight jacket.

So, the flight jacket passes, from essential tool of war to a fashionable, yet warm and durable item of clothing.  I have mine.