Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 325:
Description
United States Navy M-422A Pattern Leather Flight Jacket, Stenciled "USN" Beneath Collar with Perforated Wind-Flap Stencil, Mid-20th Century – Early G-1 Style Intermediate Flying Jacket, Maker Unmarked Offered is a vintage United States Navy leather flight jacket of the M-422A pattern, the immediate forerunner of the celebrated G-1 flying jacket familiar to collectors. Standardized by the Navy in 1940 and issued through the Second World War and into the early Korean War period, the pattern served as the definitive intermediate flight jacket for naval and Marine Corps aviators. No maker or contract label survives – only remnant tag stitching remains at the collar interior – so the jacket is catalogued on pattern, construction, and stenciling rather than a documented contract history; no separate biography or unit provenance has been located for this individual example. The M-422A pattern grew out of the Bureau of Aeronautics’ adaptation of the Army Air Corps A-2 jacket for shipboard and carrier operations, its bi-swing back and underarm gussets allowing freedom of movement in the cockpit while the mouton collar guarded against the cold of open-canopy flight over the Atlantic and Pacific. Postwar, the design was refined through the AN-J-3A and 55-J-14 contracts before settling into the MIL-J-7823 G-1 specification. The faded blue-white "USN" ink stencil beneath the collar and the pin-prick perforated stencil pattern on the interior wind flap, both clearly visible in the accompanying photographs, are consistent with issue markings applied at naval supply depots during this transitional era; the perforated legend on the flap has largely faded to a partial, illegible impression. The jacket is constructed of seal-brown goatskin with a set-in genuine mouton fur collar, a metal zipper front concealed beneath the stenciled wind flap, and the characteristic bi-swing back with underarm action gussets. Both breast pockets are the classic flapped patch style with pointed button tabs. The reverse collar bears the visible "USN" stencil, with two small hand-stitched repairs to the leather just below it. Knit wool cuffs and a matching waistband are fitted at both sleeve ends and hem, retaining their original dark brown color where intact. Condition is fair and honestly distressed, consistent with genuine period service wear: the goatskin shell shows heavy surface scuffing, creasing, and finish loss along the shoulders, sleeves, and seams, with scattered abrasion losses to the grain in several places, most visible along both sleeves. The knit cuffs and waistband are severely frayed and torn, with losses and moth nibbling most pronounced at the cuff ends. The mouton collar has curled with age but retains full pile coverage. No maker, size, or spec label survives. A characterful, well-worn survivor of naval flight gear from the WWII-to-Korea transitional era, its stenciled USN markings still legible testimony to genuine service use rather than reproduction or later assembly.
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