These are hard to find and information on them is hard to find. This is a WW2 US Navy aircraft shoulder harness. It was last inspected in 1951. I know this to be WW2 era by the construction. It is 100% cotton. Nylon lap belts and shoulder harness's do not show until post WW2. Second is the box X stitching. Post war used the zig zag stitch
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On the inertia reel attachment they have an anchor stamp and above that is a "M" with an "x" inside of it. Also found is the number "4322" On the other side is a something and an "S" then "68557-". In the past I have had the WW2 Navy "H" harness, but this is my first of "Y" type. It almost looks like the USAAF shoulder harness, but not quite.Comment
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The USAAF "Y" shoulder harness has a different construction at the inertia reel connection end.Comment
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From that same site as the news story
U.S. Navy Aircraft History
By Tommy H. Thomason
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Shoulder Harness
Although it seems hard to believe, carrier pilots were only restrained by a seat belt up until about mid 1942. One mark (literally) that might distinguish a carrier pilot before then was the impression of a dent in his forehead from striking the gunsight or instrument panel coming in a barrier crash or ditching. Probably as a result of increased incidents of that kind that wartime operations produced, at least one air group added upper-body restraints to the cockpits of their airplanes. BuAer subsequently made that official, as described in the 15 June 1943 issue of Naval Aviation News. Note for example that it lists a retrofit to the SBD-3/4s but not SBD-5s, which suggests that the latter (the first of which was delivered in April 1943) came off the production line with shoulder harness.Comment
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This looks to be a Navy "Y" shoulder harness in use.Comment
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I'm assuming the pilot is in some sort of training simulator(?)...BodesOriginally posted by p-59a View PostComment
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Nope, that's a Avenger with a special training camera for torpedo drop training.Originally posted by bodes View PostComment
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One more thing about this "Y" shoulder harness. It has no AN stamp. It can not be used on USAAF aircraft because the attachment to the inertia reel is threaded. As shown in my pics the AN type "Y" shoulder harness has a flat stamped metal attachment with a hole in it and a nut and bolt are used to secure the two ends together. I do know the Navy did use the AN B-15 type shoulder harness, but I have no idea why or when the threaded end ones were used. Maybe the Navy used these before things were standardized. I don't really know for sure though.Comment
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