A-2 jacket

The Type A-2 leather flight jacket is an American military flight jacket originally invented and developed for and closely associated with World War II U.S. Army Air Forces pilots, navigators and bombardiers, who often decorated their jackets with squadron patches and elaborate artwork painted on the back. Sometimes casually referred to as a bomber jacket, its original designation was "Jacket, Pilot's (summer)", and its wartime usage was limited neither to pilots nor to bomber crews.

The Type A-2 flying jacket was standardized by the U.S. Army Air Corps as the successor to the Type A-1 flying jacket adopted in 1927. The Type Designation Sheet lists the dates for Service Test as September 20, 1930, and Standardized (adopted as standard issue) on May 9, 1931. The military specification number for Type A-2 is 94-3040. The Drawing Number was given as 31-1415, but the spec. labels found in the jackets themselves show this to be 30-1415.

On April 27, 1943, Type A-2 was declared Limited Standard, meaning that only replacements for in-service units could be ordered. New units would now be supplied with cloth-shelled jackets such as Types B-10 and B-15.

The U.S. Army Air Forces Class 13 Catalog listed the garment as "Jacket, Flying, Type A-2," with Spec. No. 94-3040. It describes the jacket's construction as "seal brown horsehide leather, knitted wristlets and waistband (skirt)." Broadly similar in construction to the A-1, it replaced the A-1's buttoned front and pocket flaps with a zipper and hidden snap fasteners (although some very early A-2's retained the pocket buttons). The A-1's stand-up knitted collar, which buttoned closed, was supplanted in the A-2 by a shirt-style leather collar, with hidden snaps at the points and a hook-and-eye latch at the throat. Stitched-down shoulder straps were also added to the design. Sizes were listed as ranging in even numbers from 32 through 54.

Although the actual design would vary slightly depending on the manufacturer, and even among contracts within a single manufacturer, all A-2 jackets had several distinguishing characteristics: a snap-flap patch pocket on either side that does not have hand warmer compartments (hands in pockets were considered unfit for a military bearing), a shirt-style snap-down collar, shoulder straps (or Epaulets), knit cuffs and waistband, a back constructed from a single piece of leather to limit stress on the garment, and a lightweight silk or cotton inner lining with a leather hang strap (not a loop) and military spec tag attached just below the back collar.

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