RAF Flying Jacket, Pre-War Model

In 1919 an American Leslie Irvin, made the first ever free fall parachute descent using a home made Parachute constructed on a borrowed sewing machine. The new invention was an instant success and became known as the Irvin parachute. By the early 1930's was in service with some 40 air forces around the world. Irvin opened production facilities in the UK in 1926 at the Irvin Parachute Co., in Letchworth, Herts, where the famous RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket was to be "born". The first of these jackets, popularly known as "The Irvin", went into production in 1931. The early pre-war jackets were almost exclusively manufactured without horizontal seaming.The RAF only issued one sheepskin flying jacket during WWII and not all were made by The Irvin Parachute Co, but were outsourced to several contractors as the Irvin factory concentrated on the parachutes. The jacket was phased out in 1950.We use Sheepskin directly copied from an original jacket . Our buckles are die cast from originals, we have perfect repro AM Zippers, Nothing about Aero's RAF jacket will let it down when compared to an original.