Luft flight equipment and all that's related.

[Theodor]

Hi Robert, it is Jan. 1940. Mother saw it and said, that Grandfather still had his own in the 1950's, but has been lost during one of the many house movings at the time. But his has been yellow, according to her. So, next objective - to get one of the yellow models.

[Viscount]

Date for LW Flying Boots?

Could someone please help me with dating a pair of electrically heated Flying Boots in my collection?

1.

[Viscount]

2.

[Viscount]

3.

[Viscount]

4.

[Viscount]

5.

[Jos L C]

All I can tell is that they're late war...,still a nice pair
The construction with the extra strap around the heel and the type of buckles always gives me the impression that they're foreign made,maybe Czech or Bulgarian, but for German Luftwaffe.
Just my theory though.

Jos.

[Viscount]

All I can tell is that they're late war...,still a nice pair
The construction with the extra strap around the heel and the type of buckles always gives me the impression that they're foreign made,maybe Czech or Bulgarian, but for German Luftwaffe.
Just my theory though.

Jos.

Thanks Jos

I'm trying to collect early LW items so maybe this pair will end up
for sale?

I have another pair of boots which may also be late war.

Regards,
Robert.

[Jos L C]

For early ones you need to find the double zippers,which are hard to find and if you'll find them they mostly have damage.
Owned a few pairs,but they're gone,always something wrong with the zippers etc..
The ones with single metal zippers will also do,the ones having "plastic" zippers are normally later versions.

Jos.

[RamJet]

5.

I have some problems with Kohinoor zippers or buttons as I suppose they are ALWAYS made after the war ... Kohinoor was the successor of WICO.

WICO was a German-Czech manufacturer which produced under the name WICO until the war ended, and then was re-named Kohinoor after 1945. Kohinoor became a mother enterprise for a lot of smaller manufacturers which all produced then under this label. Before the war, Kohinoor was a Czech manufacturer of drawing items. After the Cold War ended, Kohinoor became WICO again.

Here is a screenshot of the WICO homepage:

[Jos L C]

Well,Robert's boots have labels in them with RB number, so I see no problem..
I also have had some wartime items with koh-i-noor snaps...

Companies don't mention about the war,there's always a grey area/gab in their info
concerning that time as I've noticed..
As you can see they start in 1945,very typical..

Same with Nietsche & Guenther....,their info is only pre and postwar,the years of war do not exist,
while they've produced loads of splitterbrillen and other optics for Germany.
N & G is still in business, but don't ask them about their goggles, they'll ignore your question.

Jos.

[Andy F-P]

Agfa film marked to a Luftwaffe flight training school, Flufzeugfuehrerschule B27.

[Viscount]

Net Helmet

It seems to me that there is a convention that the Net Helmet was worn by fighter pilots only. One source states that the Net Helmet was favoured by fighter pilots as it kept them cool within the confines of a small fighter cockpit.

However, assuming a ground (Air Base) temperature of +15 degrees C .....at an altitude of 3000m/10,000 feet the outside air temperature will be -5 degrees C. The temperature will continue to fall as height is gained.

(Temperature falls -2 degrees for every 300m/1,000 feet).

Therefore, as fighter pilots in the LW flew even higher for tactical reasons, why would a Net or Mesh helmet be so important? Perhaps in desert regions where the ground temperature was 30 degrees or more??

I have seen wartime pics and film of bomber pilots wearing the Net Helmet. And of course there are pics and film of fighter pilots wearing the Winter Helmet.

Regards,
Robert.

[Jos L C]

During the early days we see the 2 point Netzkopfhaubes mostly with fighterpilots,Stuka...later on also bombercrew did use these and we also see a 3 point Netzkopfhaube during that period,same with N & G goggles.

Fighterpilots also wore the Winter and Summer caps, so we can say that all types of caps were worn by all types of pilots.

Let's not forget that flightcaps were also worn by certain FLAK members and I can imagine other branches which were dealing with having radio contact.
I've some scans of a train which was protected by 2 cm FLAK on board,the crew wore flightsuits,flightgloves and flightcaps..,very interesting.

Jos.

[RamJet]

Well,Robert's boots have labels in them with RB number, so I see no problem..
I also have had some wartime items with koh-i-noor snaps...

Companies don't mention about the war,there's always a grey area/gab in their info
concerning that time as I've noticed..
As you can see they start in 1945,very typical..

Same with Nietsche & Guenther....,their info is only pre and postwar,the years of war do not exist,
while they've produced loads of splitterbrillen and other optics for Germany.
N & G is still in business, but don't ask them about their goggles, they'll ignore your question.

Jos.

Jos, I still have problems with Kohinoor wartime items ... it is not so that WICO makes a grey zone about the wartime, they state that their company was RENAMED Kohinoor in 1945 after producing until then under the WICO label and became a states company in the socialist CSSR ... for me that means also that WICO zippers are good on wartime items as from 1945 until 1991 there simply was no zipper manufacturer named WICO ... or am I wrong in this point?

But You are right, there is a possibility that Kohinoor started manufacturing zippers and so on in the war and WICO became a sub-manufacturer in 1945 due to that very fact ... can't prove that.