Vintage Flight Suits

[Fridgemaster]

Hi there Loungers!
( PLease excuse my not at all perfect english, this time and in all the posts to follow )
After so many months of lurking i finally have something interresting to add here.
Last week my brother an i made an amazing found at our local flight club. We found 2 flight suits which seemed to be very old ( and were also looking that way).
One is made of cloth and the other of leather. Both were in good shape except for the leather itself, as it wasn't taken care of in ages.
We decided to take them home, restore them und take them back in use. Soaring in an old Cabrio Glider is much more fun if you're dressed in a matching overall. They fit me prefectly as i'm 188cm (6'2'') tall.
After a little research we believe that only the cloth one is a real Luftwaffe item, because we found photos to prove it. Unfortunatly we weren't able to find any proving photos for the leather one (Maybe some of you guys can help?) . Best thing however is that we strongly believe they both belong to a austrian fighter ace in WW2, Oberst Johann Schalk
We can't prove it but since he died in Graz which is near our Flight Club and we have a lot of members from there it's posible. The marking said "Oberst Schalk" and we didn't find anyone else with this name during our research.
Oh and please excuse the photos but its just too hot to go outside and take some proper pics ;-)

So here they are

Cloth one. All orig. Zippers except for the main one. We needed to replace it as it was broken.


Leather one. All orig , no need for replacments, we just couldn't confirm it is a "real" WW2 one


If you want more pics or details please let me know.

[1930artdeco]

They sure look like WW II era, and congradulations on the find they are beautiful. For the leather one over here I would use 'Lexol' or 'neats foot oil' to bring the leather back to life. I just noticed the little zippers for 'a relief tube' that is neat. If you are on that long of a flight at that high of an altitude I would pee REALLY FAST-as it is cold way up there.

On the cloth one, hand wash it in a mild detergent and let it air dry. I have used 'oxyclean' with good results. I cleaned one jacket and the water ran out brown for the first couple of washes.

Mike

[roadierfl]

Your cloth suit is DEFINITELY WW2 Luftwaffe issue. Very rare to find in this condition!!! The leather one is NOT Luftwaffe though because the zipper pattern is wrong and the lapels are far too wide. Luftwaffe leather flight suits also usually had a cheesecloth tag sewn inside with the manufacturer information. From enlarging the picture, it also doesn't appear as though your leather suit ever had one. It looks like it's a pre-war civil flight suit, I would guess somewhere between 1927 and 1935 based on the style.

[CeeDee]

Very cool suits...I love seeing historical pieces like this!

[Fridgemaster]

Thanks for the replies
I trying to some photos tomorrow with me sitting in our vintage glider with those suits on. Maybe thiose will make even me look like a badass cool pilot


@1930artdeco
You should have seen it before i used a leather restoration produkt on it. Our local shoemaker suggest it and it was a real pleasure to use as you could see how beatifull the leather became afterwards. Those zippers youre talking of are the far most interesting thing about the whole suit for most people so far Most of them don't care much about the suit itself but nearly all were laughing as they nopticed those zippers.

@roadierfl
Your suggestion might be just right. Obst. Schalk was in service from 1922-1945 so it is very possible that it is a civil suit. Problem is that they were hanging in the hangar for decades so noone remebers were they came from sadly. And you are right about the marking. There are no holes ore anything else so Im sure there was never anything sewn in.

[deco_droid]

Wow! That leather suit is amazing!