I have a collection of flight jackets. I can’t help it. Aviation is my favourite thing. One jacket I need for my collection is the RAF-issue Mk3.
Second topic first: Are these available for purchase, new? If so, where and how much?
First question second: Can somsone please explain sizing to me? I’ve heard that a size 4 is about a 44" chest, and a size 5 is like a 40" chest. The size of the jacket goes down as the size numbers go up? What’s the inch size of s size 1? What’s the highest size number, and what inch size is it?
Check out History Preservation Associates. Evidently they supplied all the bomber jackets for the Pearl Harbor movie. I don’t see a jacket labeled “mk3”, but there are a number of Royal Air Force styles on the linked page. I’m curious to know if the one you have in mind is there.
No, I know where to get an ‘Irvin’ jacket. (Brown leather with honey-coloured fleece, pre-war pattern, no modern ‘handwarmer pockets’. It’s my reward for losing weight.) I’m looking for the current-issue RAF olive-green flight jacket. (Should be Nomex.)
I found one on eBay. It’s a size 4, and the text confirms what I’ve heard about a 4 being a 44. It’s a bit pricey though.
Is this the kind of thing you’re looking for? Googling for “army surplus stores, uk” will give you quite a few results, if you didn’t know already.
If indeed that’s the kind of suit you’re looking for, here’s a shop with them in multiple sizes and multiple qualities.
No, one of these.
I tried googling for ‘surplus’, ‘mk3’, ‘raf’, ‘jacket’, ‘-ebay’, ‘-auction’ (those last because it’s easier to buy from a shop), but didn’t turn anything up. 122 links, but no jackets on the ones I checked.
Aaahhhh, one of THEM!!!
I have been looking for one of these all over the place. Main reason is the standard ‘bomber’ type jackets do not not epaulettes, whereas these do. No epaulettes, no place to put rank slides, which is a pain.
So, I have been looking as well, and no joy as yet.
Yeah, too expensive for me right now. I can wear my CWU-45/P. I have a ‘NATO flight jacket’, which I think was US Army surplus, only I saw RAF pilots wearing them in the '80s. I have it done up in 101 Squadron patches. (Jackets I actually wear only have my AOPA nameplate on them.) Still, if any more sources for the Mk3 jackets show up, I’d like to see them.
So what about the size thing?