Repro'd B-29/B-36 Crew Cap

[deanglen]

incredible

It was not stiff because I used Fabric Acrylic Paint, The bond with the leather was not too good, but the flexibility was there.

D.

 

[glider]

This vintage leather cap was purchased for my birthday this year:

As I indicated in an earlier post, I intended to modify it according to photographs I found researching the kind of crew headgear worn in the Post World War II era by USAF B-29 crews over Korea, and B-36 crews of the SAC bomber era up to about 1957 or so. Some of the shots I found :

Deciding on a color scheme that would seem appropriate to the era, I decided to add patches to the sides of the hat, a letter to indicate the wearers position in the crew, and letters on the visor to indicate his home state, and it's surely no surprise I chose my own home state. Not being able to find patches on-line that I needed or could afford, I transferred images to heat transfer material from a craftstore onto felt and then sewed them to the sides of the cap choosing the sides based on where the emblems would be on the sides of the front of the airplane, and then hand painted over them, knowing that hand painted patches were not uncommon, and rationalizing that the crewman who would have worn this cap could easily have hand copied some shoulder patches, short of actually having extras to place on the cap.

The cap is leather, non GI issue, and therefore I created the back story that it was a cap sent from his home in Michigan, by his parents, or wife, to wear to keep him warm at high altitudes, not being aware of the pressurized cabins providing heated comfort that B-17 and B-24 bomber crews would not have enjoyed. Therefore he modified the hat to wear as a crew cap, or to keep as a memento.

The patches are the 9th Bombardment Squadron, heavy, and the 7th Bomb Wing, out of Carswell AFB. This would place its owner as the navigator of either a B-29, or B-36 in SAC's nuclear arsenal. I like to think it was both as each was introduced to the 9th Bomb Sq H.

The 9th patch is a beautiful design that was formally adopted in 1932, and reflects the history of the 9th going back to night recon flights in the three major Allied offensives of 1918 that the 9th US Aero Squadron to part in, symbolized by each of the three searchlight beams which form a Roman "9". The 7th Bomb Wing patch has the Latin MORS AB ALTO: "Death From Above". The 9th patch is a total paint over in grey, silver and black, the official colors of the emblem. The 7th patch has simply been highlighted with gold paint over paint enhanced blue.

Black acrylic was used for the top of the crown, and visor, and white acrylic for the state abbreviation. The "N" for navigator is from light grey felt and stitched by hand to the crown.

The wings are period correct navigator wings that pinned neatly to the leather piece across the front of the cap. The wings cost me more than the cap plus shipping.

Here it is now:

dean

PRETTY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!