Leather Flight Suit Opinions Wanted~ !

[Gerard/Relic Hunter]

Hello Guys,
I took this flight suit in trade thinking it was the standard Luftwaffe leather flight suit that I am familiar with, made by Karl Heisler. It is not. Upon close examination, the cut is way different, it has loops for a waist belt, which is missing, the snaps are unmarked and the zippers are French and also "Bte SGDG". Any clue on this one? French, postwar? Can anyone identify it? Also, this exact suit is in Mick Prodger's "Luftwaffe vs. RAF", page 88. I honestly believe this is misidentified as a Luftwaffe suit.

Gerard

[Gerard/Relic Hunter]

anyone?

[Gary Cain]

Hi Gerard,

I have seen one of these long ago but for the life of me I can't remember where. I agree with you though that Prodger misidentified this flight suit. I will look through some of my foreign aviation periodicals and see if I can spot one in use. I do have a 1920's French aviator photo that shows a very smiliar suit in use. It does not have the fur collar though. Is the collar on yours removeable?


Cheers
Gary

[Leroy]

I have also seen photos of this type of suit before (and, like Gary, also can't remember where), but I believe it is a 1930's French item and not necessarily military at all.

[javo1]

This Flight suit was definitely used by the Luftwaffe.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Foto-Flugzeug-Luf...item588477a8bd

[Jos L C]

Yes, used by Luftwaffe, but don't know its origin. I also think it's a foreign suit, most probably French.

Jos.

[Scott A. Hess]

French made...

France, patent designation. Bte
S.G.D.G = Sans Guarantie du Gouvernment.

[frank savage]

Of course! Franch made, used in the early stages of the war...

Cheers!

[javo1]

Hi Gerard,
found another picture for you :

[Mike Wenger]

French, or Perhaps Austrian?

All.

I had always thought that these suits might have been Austrian. There was one of them in the estate of Gordon Gollob, I believe. The JG-51 book photo further down the thread shows the pilot in a winter 1939-40 photo [??] wearing on of these, which might knock out the suit as being French. Still, the zippers being French is important. I wonder if the Austrians bought hardware, etc., stuff from France.

I got lucky and found one of these (complete with the belt) on eBAy MANY years ago. A unique item that one would never see again. The thing (like most leather suits) weighs a ton!

It was interesting to see the suits that George Peterson had for sale when he was liquidating his collection. There were quite a number of suits of questionable provenance, and I suspect many were French, pressed into German service.

I just joined this forum... will post pictures of my suit[s] when I can figure out how to do it

Mike Wenger

[JackHun]

Welcome Mike, enjoy the forum - flight related objects are always very welcome! Before you are an association member you can link your photos via URL from an image server/website.

Jack