Posted by MyBomberJacket.com on 1st Jun 2017

Superstar Leather Bomber Jackets | Champion of Jackets

The leather bomber jacket and the leather flight jacket that comes to us from the Apparel Market today has a deep and lustrous history with the American Armed Forces. The legend began with the countless photographs from both the Pacific and European Campaigns. This was the jacket of the American crusader, the warrior who would fight on two massive battle fronts and two vast oceans. The Champions who would free the world of tyranny wore a leather Type A2 Bomber Jacket and those in the U.S. Navy were issued the leather Type G1 Flight Jacket. Those flying the bombers wore the Sheepskin Type B3 Bomber Jacket.

The crews of the heavy American bombers, the B17, the B24, and the B29, those instruments who traversed oceans and continents in the fight for freedom, witnessed all three bomber jackets aboard with their crews. The British issued a jacket to their personnel, called the RAF Sheepskin Even the ANJ4 made a favorable splash with many combat air crewmen.

The leather G1 Flight Jacket was issued to many Carrier Pilots, including Civilian Air Patrols back home who flew the two American Coasts. The Jackets were Government Issue. But, they were one of the few “GI Issues” that was an immediate superstar hit with those who received one.

As the B17 Flying Fortress became known for their ability to take a brutal pounding, so did the leather bomber jackets its crews wore. War is work, war is tough, and each A2 Bomber Jacket and each G1 Flight Jacket proved its stout worth on each and every mission. The B17 was first put into production in the 1930’s. The B17 holds the record of having dropped more bombs during WWII than any other heavy bomber. They even participated in the war on Dec. 7^th, 1941, flying into Hawaii on the morning during the raid. They also flew out of Clark Field in the Philippines as part of General Douglas MacArthur’s Air Corps.

The B24 Consolidated Liberator Crews served in many different climates, from Northern Africa, Italy, England, and all over the Pacific. The B24 Liberator was the most massed produced of all the different heavy bombers, with over 19,000 aircraft made. It was also the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean on regular flights. It is thought that only two B24’s are air worthy today. Its air crews often wore the B3, but in warmer climates, the A2 or GI Jackets took over. The A2 and GI became compelling icons of the B24’s name, the Liberator. Just like its fighting aircraft, America’s leather bomber jackets were seen as the one of the greatest symbols of liberty.

North American’s B25 Mitchell Medium Bomber Aircraft saw extensive duty in all of the theaters of war. But, in the Pacific, it became not only a legend, but a superstar! This was the plane that delivered the first blow to the Japanese Empire in the famous Doolittle Raid in early 1942. Doolittle’s crews wore B3 Sheepskin Bomber jackets and the already well established Type A2 Leather Bomber Jacket with the Squadron Patch attacked to the breast of the jacket. There is also the famous photo of Doolittle Raider RL Hite after his capture by the Japanese, still wearing his B3 Bomber Jacket.