Recent content by HackerF15E

To be fair, we are not talking about Hub Zemke's personal jacket here -- he has a 1970 7823D G-1. Nice jacket -- I have a D-series in my own collection -- but we aren't talking about an irreplaceable jacket if an "adverse event" takes place.

I have machine washed several goat and cowhide flight jackets -- cold water with no detergent -- with no ill effects (including shrinkage). In fact, I think it much improved the look and feel of them after the wash.

The stock number shows a 2001 contract date, so definitely not "new" by any stretch.

FWIW, the blood chits aren't really that much of a rarity. Lots of guys get 'em done at Pop's Leather in Turkey, Mr Lim's over in South Korea, or any number of other places.

I think it would be worth the gamble at that price, definitely.

Thanks, Atticus -- I was hoping you'd chime in, since you probably have the best knowledge on modern A-2s for comparison between brands. I did not know about the inside pocket, though. Learn somethin' new every day!

I have to guess that is NOT a 1992 USAF-issue jacket, mostly based on the fact that it only has the nametag piece of velcro on it -- issue jackets have velcro on both sides of the breast. Additionally, it has an inside pocket, which I do not believe was on the government contracts at that time...

Are they real issue, or the current-production Orchards that are using the same tag as the 1992 production jackets? By my recollection, when a bunch of people over on VLJ purchased some of the current-production jackets, they had to order them large to get a good fit Here's a quote from one of...

Like others, you don't really need to do anything to it right now. You can spray it down/wipe with Lexol or Pecards conditioner if you want, but it's certainly not required. With respect to long-term cleaning, or heavy cleaning, I've had good luck with a cold water spin through the washing...

Please post photos and a review once you get it, if you would. I'd love to see what you think.

Such a great tradition that's been lost. Glad those photos were taken and preserved.

By "real" do you mean made for the 1992 (?) USAF contract? Even the current made jackets are "real" Orchard jackets - they're just not issue items.

I don't have enough experience with the two jackets (the mil contract vs the current production) to really know just by how they look and feel. I'd think that any auction from Orchard themselves would be an indicator that it's not a 1992 government contract jacket. There was quite a bit of...

Orchards were made under a single contract for a very limited time period (1992, IIRC). They're by far the "rarest" of the modern era contract A-2s. The vast majority of what you see on eBay are current-production commercial jackets that use the same old contract number and NSN as their...

How would you have been able to determine what kind of crew it was issued to via the NSN?