• Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
  • Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England
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Revive Restore Vintage

Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England

Vintage 1950s British RAF Sheepskin Flying Jacket – Aero Zips, Made in England

£595
£595
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Your thumb finds the cuff zip before your eyes do: AERO, in block capitals, struck between two incised lines. It is the only name on the jacket.

Aero Zipp Fasteners was a Welsh works, established on the Treforest Trading Estate near Pontypridd in the late 1930s by Joachim Koppel, a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany. In the war it made zips for military equipment and parts for aircraft. By 1965 it was making a third of Britain’s zip exports, and its zips turn up on British outerwear of the period, Grenfell jackets among them. Whoever cut and stitched this coat left no mark of their own. The only label is a woven ribbon at the collar, gold on black: Made in England.

You have to read the hide instead. The collar stands high against the jaw and buckles at the throat. Side straps draw the waist in, so the wind finds no way up the back. The cuffs zip shut over a glove. The pockets slant down into cream wool, set where a hand drops without thinking. Wherever the leather stops, the fleece takes over: hem, cuffs, pocket borders. The cold meets wool at every turn.

The cut has a name: the Mk VI, sold in Britain as a flying jacket. Some of the labels even say WW2, a nod to the wartime jacket being copied, not the year it was sewn. Its cut and its cuff zips point to the 1950s. The front zip came later, a brown plastic YKK, probably fitted in the 1970s.

The leather is dark brown and lacquered. Worn raw, sheepskin is suede and soaks up water and oil, so flying jackets were sprayed with a dark pigment and a lacquer over it. Collectors cite Glenn Sweeting’s Combat Flying Clothing for a wartime American waterproofing treatment called Korsseal, and a USAAF instruction of October 1943 for a polyacrylate dye under an acrylic lacquer. How the British jackets were finished is still argued over. How any of them age is not: the lacquer picks up crazing, fine hairline cracks, where the leather flexes. Here it is minor, at the elbows, underarms and piped seams, and it has been treated.

Inside, the fleece is dense, curled and cream.

Zip the cuff shut and read the pull once more. The maker never signed the coat. The zip did.

Condition & Restoration

Very good vintage condition for its age. The lacquered finish is intact and glossy across the body, back and sleeves, with minor crazing and light distressing mainly at the elbows, the underarms and the piped seams. These areas have been treated, and they are shown close up in the images.

The shearling is dense, clean and cream at the cuffs and hem, and the brown wool collar is full and plush. The shearling edging to the pockets shows light wear from use, shorter and flatter on one side, with no holes or tears. These areas are shown close up in the images.

The Aero cuff zips are original, with light surface oxidation to the metal. The front zip is a later YKK, probably fitted in the 1970s. All zips, buckles and straps are in working order.

Specialist cleaned and conditioned in-house.

Key Features

  • Vintage British RAF-style sheepskin flying jacket, Mk VI cut
  • Made in England, circa 1950s (dated by its Aero cuff zips and cut)
  • Original Aero cuff zips, silver-toned metal, pull stamped AERO, Welsh-made
  • Later brown molded-plastic YKK front zip, probably 1970s
  • Rounded brown wool collar with buckled throat strap
  • Slanted hand-warmer pockets edged in cream shearling
  • Zipped cuffs and adjustable side waist straps
  • Piped seams at the sleeves and sides
  • One-piece back under a single yoke seam
  • Lacquered dark brown finish, minor crazing treated
  • Dense curled cream fleece throughout
  • Woven Made in England label at the collar

Size & Fit

  • Chest, armpit to armpit: 21.5" / 54.6 cm
  • Shoulders, seam to seam: 20" / 50.8 cm
  • Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff: 26" / 66 cm
  • Underarm seam to cuff: 20" / 50.8 cm
  • Back length, base of collar to hem: 29" / 73.7 cm

Best suited to: 38" chest, regular / Size Small

Fit: A mid-length flying jacket, broad through the shoulders, with the thick fleece taking up a good deal of room inside. A 38" chest will have space for a jumper underneath. The side straps draw the waist in, and the cuffs zip open to get a hand through. 

Please go by the measurements above, and compare them with a jacket you already own..

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