DEFINITIVE : Military Flight Jackets Soar Back From the Past

Decades after they were put into service, the military flight jacket is once again soaring in popularity.

During World War II, pilots wore the rugged-looking A-2 flight jackets on their daring missions in the sky. Since then, the originals have become sought-after commodities, while copies of the vintage jackets are being worn on the street.

The jacket’s allure is due largely to its romantic history. They recall a time when there were still American heroes, when pilots wearing the jackets risked their lives for their country.

Jeff Clyman so loved the well-worn A-2 flight jacket handed down to him from his father that he now reproduces flight jackets through his company, Avirex, based in New York City.

“The jackets carry with them the ideas of who wore them and what they went through,” says Clyman, a pilot who flies vintage World War II airplanes. “It was the age of black and white, right and wrong. The jackets represent absolute values, and now nothing’s absolute.

“Back then you knew who the good guys were--the good guys wore those jackets. Guys put their lives on the line while wearing them. They strapped themselves in a parachute, climbed into an airplane and tried to shoot down the enemy.

“It’s about selflessness and heroism, and a little bit of that message gets through to almost everyone who likes the jackets.”

Finding an original jacket isn’t easy. They tend to stay in the family, handed down as a treasured heirloom. If they do make it to the marketplace, the best ones are diverted to people on the lookout for them. The finer specimens cost thousands of dollars.

“I only wish I could get more, but they come in very seldom,” says Hans Mulder, owner of Old Glory, a vintage clothing store in Laguna Beach that sells an occasional original military jacket. “The good ones are scarce.”

Luckily for lovers of flight jackets, the replicas produced by Avirex do justice to the originals.

“We’ve taken a military classic and turned it into a fashion piece without changing the garment,” Clyman says.

The basic zip-up jackets are made of worn-looking cowhide, goatskin, lambskin and horsehide. They’re adorned with vintage-looking military patches and pictures of pin-up girls. The jackets range from $250 for a basic model to $450 for one lined in sheepskin.

“Each jacket tells a story,” says Katra Showah, director of retail sales for The Cockpit, a Beverly Hills-based store owned by Avirex that has a large selection of the jackets.

Linings of the jackets are printed with patriotic motifs--poems, slogans and American flags--the same inspirational memorabilia pilots took with them to the skies. One basic A-2 jacket has a copy of an escape map printed on its lining--pilots relied on the maps in case they were shot down behind enemy lines.

“Tourists love the jackets. It’s a piece of Americana,” says Esther Rottiers, manager of Mize Sport in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, which carries the Avirex line. Other local carriers include Garys & Company in Fashion Island Newport Beach and Nordstrom.

Clyman’s company began putting the flight jackets back on official duty in 1987. The Air Force had retired the jackets soon after the war, but the Pentagon decided to reissue them to pilots in part as a kind of morale-booster. Explains Clyman:

“The jackets are synonymous with what the Air Force wants to think their people are--sort of leather-jacketed heroes.”