Heersflieger Militaria

[RedCatcher1986]

Being a former US Army aviator, Im also interested in German Army aviation as well. How common is Bundeswehr Heersflieger militaria in the collector's realm? I imagine its probably not as numerous as U.S. Army Aviation militaria with a rather large surplus of the old one piece olive drab or desert tan one piece flight suits. Ive seen a lot more Luftwaffe related articles than Heeresflieger articles. The only German Army flight suit I've ever come across was on ebay.de and it belonged to a Bo-105 helicopter pilot who had flown in Afghanistan and it went for about 120 Euros after it was all said and done. The only reason I didnt bid on it was because the seller didnt accept paypal and its difficult to do a money transfer from an American bank to a German one, and I doubt he would have let me do a Western Union money transfer. Some will though. Anyway I have a couple questions. Is there a separate type of pilot badge for the Army Aviation Corps such as the branch insignia, flight mechanic, Crew Chief, Pilot etc etc versus their Air Force counterparts? I guess probably besides our collector friends in Germany, the best persons closer to home would be either Thomas or Gordon. I'm not very knowledgable in this field and am new to German militaria collecting in general. Would anyone also be able to point me in the right direction in terms of recieving more information as far as Heeresflieger militaria? Are there any print media available displaying the various aircraft in use by the German Army Aviation Corps like the Bo-105, UH-1D, CH-53?

I also found some really sharp videos of the Heeresflieger's next generation combat helicopter the Eurocopter EC665 Tiger gunship. The videos are in German but for anyone interested in the field I recommend them.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
DeWayne

Part 1
http://youtu.be/fg7ROylTqtQ

Part 2
http://youtu.be/P14qwGaCzx0

[Gordon Craig]

RedCatcher1989,

Heeresfleiger artifats are not very common in the collectors market. The beret seems to be what is available most often.
I have a couple of Heeresfleiger tunics but no flight clothing for them. The most commonly seen pictures on the net are for light tan coveralls as worn currently in Afghanistan. There are some photos that show darker brown flight gear as wel as some guys in the orange SAR coveralls. There are special helmets for the Heeresflieger, in khaki colours, which are the same model as is worn in the Luftwaffe but with different communications gear. It uses a boom mike instaed of a throat mike or a mike in an oxygen mask.
There is no special insignia for Heeresflieger. They wear the same as the luftwaffe for pilots etc. except that the background cloth is grey to match the heer tunics. The same goes for the Luftwaffe except their badges are on navy blue material. The picture below shows pilots wings on one of my Heeresflieger tunics. Note the U.S. Army pilots wings worn as well. Pilot training for the BW takes place in the U.S. Heeresflieger and Luftwaffe members often wear both sets of wings on their service tunics.
The waffenfarbe for Heeresflieger is light grey. The Heeresflieger adopted the cuffband with the wings on it shortly after the Luftwaffe did but the cuffband is in dark grey instead of the blue of the Luftwaffe. The Heeresflieger continued to wear this cuffband after the Luftwaffe stopped wearing it.
There is nothing in print that I am aware of on the aircraft flown by the Heeresflieger. I may have something in my files and I'll see what I can did up to post.
I hope that I have answered all of your questions plus a few comments of my own. If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Regards,

Gordon

[RamJet]

http://www.amazon.de/Die-deutschen-H.../dp/3613021463

[RedCatcher1986]

RedCatcher1989,

Heeresfleiger artifats are not very common in the collectors market. The beret seems to be what is available most often.
I have a couple of Heeresfleiger tunics but no flight clothing for them. The most commonly seen pictures on the net are for light tan coveralls as worn currently in Afghanistan. There are some photos that show darker brown flight gear as wel as some guys in the orange SAR coveralls. There are special helmets for the Heeresflieger, in khaki colours, which are the same model as is worn in the Luftwaffe but with different communications gear. It uses a boom mike instaed of a throat mike or a mike in an oxygen mask.
There is no special insignia for Heeresflieger. They wear the same as the luftwaffe for pilots etc. except that the background cloth is grey to match the heer tunics. The same goes for the Luftwaffe except their badges are on navy blue material. The picture below shows pilots wings on one of my Heeresflieger tunics. Note the U.S. Army pilots wings worn as well. Pilot training for the BW takes place in the U.S. Heeresflieger and Luftwaffe members often wear both sets of wings on their service tunics.
The waffenfarbe for Heeresflieger is light grey. The Heeresflieger adopted the cuffband with the wings on it shortly after the Luftwaffe did but the cuffband is in dark grey instead of the blue of the Luftwaffe. The Heeresflieger continued to wear this cuffband after the Luftwaffe stopped wearing it.
There is nothing in print that I am aware of on the aircraft flown by the Heeresflieger. I may have something in my files and I'll see what I can did up to post.
I hope that I have answered all of your questions plus a few comments of my own. If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Regards,

Gordon

Thanks for the info Gordon, you've been of great assistance. Ramjet thanks for the link to amazon.de I will definitely have to do some searching around there as well.