West German slip on rank patches, and the leather flight jacket

[Paul Torak]

5 of 5

[Gordon Craig]

Dave,

LTG 63 is Lufttransport Geschwader 63. If you contact the person who posted #8 you should be able to get some sleeve rank patches. I PM'd him and he had some but not in the rank that I was looking for. I am not sure what would go on the right breast of this flight jacket. I'll do some research and get back to you.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Dave,

Here is some history of LTG63.

Regards,

Gordon

LTG 63 was originally set up on 15 September 1961 in the air base in Celle and equipped with the Noratlas 2501. In 1967 the squadron moved to Rendsburg. Starting in 1968 and completed by 1970 the Noratlas was replaced by the Transall C-160. The C-160 aircraft design and production was a joint venture between France and West Germany. It can carry a pay load of 16 tons or 92 passengers. It can also be equipped as an air ambulance or to carry paratroopers. It has a crew of five; Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, on-board technician and an aircraft load-master.
In the spring of 1993 it absorbed parts of the dissolved helicopter transportation squadron HTG 64 from Althorn. This added 19 Bell UH-1Ds to its inventory. Another role of LTG 63 is in Search and Rescue (SAR). Below is a picture of an SAR helicopter from LTG 63. This is an excellent example of the many different badge configurations that may be worn on flight clothing within a squadron at any given moment. Although the squadron members are shown in the orange flight suit my comment on the patches worn is just as applicable to the leather flight jackets.

[Gordon Craig]

The Transall C160.

[RamJet]

Hi,

just found this thread. I do not look into this part of the forum every day.

The rank patches on the grey flight leather jackets are the slip-ons You use on every other Bundeswehr clothing. There are no special rank patches for the leather jackets. Every time I was promoted, I took a set of the new ones and gave them to the wing tailor with my jacket to put it on. Sometimes the backside was cut away, sometimes the whole thing was applied. If You want blue rank patches or green ones at Your jacket - up to You, my current set is blue. The velcro method is used mainly today, but there are a lot of old-fashioned jackets with stitched-on patches around like mine. And as with every promotion the old set is ripped of and the new one is sewn on, there are a lot of stitching holes in this area of the leather.

Same goes for the patches. When I changed assignment, the old wing patches were traded in for the ones of the new wing, which often are on very different places. Nametag righthand side, nametag lefthand side, everything is possible and depends on the respective wing or even squadron. So a well-worn leather jacket has a lot of stitches visible. And of course every patch was sewn through the liner, the wing tailors have no time to remove the liner and attach it again. They have a lot to do, everything is done the fast way.

Just packed my leather jacket for my annual reserve exercise which starts tomorrow ...

[Gordon Craig]

Ramjet,

It has been a while since we have heard from you. Good to have your first hand knowledge on these jackets. I hope that you enjoy your time back in uniform.

Regards,

Gordon

[RamJet]

Thanks, Gordon, for sure I will do. Can post a few pics from modern Luftwaffe equipment afterwards if this would be of interest. Eurofighter stuff.

[Gordon Craig]

Ramjet,

Yes please. Modern Eurofighter stuff is of interest to me at least. Flight gear is always of interest.

Regards,

Gordon

[RamJet]

Okay. Next week.

[Paul Torak]

Gordon thank you for the outstanding history lesson on LTG 63, and the aircraft in use .
For the rank patches, I wrote to the "the.warlord1944" in #8 about contacting my friend concerning available patches, and he promptly wrote to him to see what he was looking for, many thanks to him for doing that!
Also many thanks to Ramjet for his information, it's much appreciated. I would also be interested in learning more about Eurofighter items!


Thanks again

Dave

[RamJet]

Concerning flight clothing, we are in a transition phase. A lot of people run around in the old blue-grey coveralls and the leather flight jacket like me, some already wear the new green coveralla with the new green jacket or the leather jacket, and for Eurofighter flight ops we have special coveralls with less zippers as they can hurt the air bubble of the Eurofighter pressure suit AEA. Just everything is possible ...
I don't like the green stuff. Every air force of the world wears green, so the blue-grey was Luftwaffe special. Hate to give it up, keep it as long as possible.

Oh, and the Austrian Air Force guys who get their Eurofighter training here also wear green coveralls, of course different from ours ...

[Gordon Craig]

Ramjet,

Thanks for posting the info re the new flight gear. I was going to ask you to post some pictures of it but when you said you post pictures of the Euro fighter stuff I didn't bother as I figured it would show up then.
Also interesting tid bit about the Austrian flight gear. Since I also collect Austrian stuff, as foes Hugh, it is of innterest to use.

Regards,

Gordon

[Klaus1989]

What is/was orange flight suit for? Special for Sanitätsdienst crews (I notice helicopter say "Notarzt" on it)? I know I have seen photos of it before but not remember who wear it.

regards
Klaus

[RamJet]

The orange flight suit was introduced in the 60s for all flight crews because a jet pilot drowned after a bail-out, as the rescue boats couldn't find him in time in the water with his grey suit.

In the second half of the 80s, when toned down camouflage was applied to all tactical aircraft, the blue-grey suits were introduced as well as grey helmets. The white bonedomes and bright orange suits were highly visible in the cockpits of the low-viz aircraft.

[Gordon Craig]

Ramjet,

Thanks for the timing of issue of the different flight suits. It was my understanding that the orange flight suits continued in use with the Search and Rescue crews, (hence the large SAR on the side of the helicopter) as shown in the photo of LTG 63 that I posted, and for other crews flying over water.

Regards,

Gordon