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Some of mY Air Corps/Air Force wings


USMCRECON
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Another shirt-sized wing, this one a Senior Pilot. To my untrained eye it looks sort of like a Meyer wing but....??? It has no markings on the back other than sterling.

 

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This is sort of quasi-military, I guess. Because so many military pilots flew with the organization...I'll post it as such. I forgot to photo this one before I put the glass back on the display case. Consequently, the photo is taken through it and is a bit fuzzy/ripply. Sigh! You get the idea, though. It is shirt-sized and has two clutch-back fasteners on the back.

 

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This pair is rather strange. These wings look to have been stamped out of thin metal. They have two "cotter pin" type mountings that are common on British rank and unit pins. I'd originally posted these wings a year or so ago to mixed reviews. Since then I was wondering if they might have been CBI made items...I just don't know.

 

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Getting tired. One more and I'm done for tonight. This pair was also posted a year ago (maybe more) and there were differences of opinion on them. They're also rather thinly stamped metal but the detail on the front is nice and sharp with good feather detail on the front, and British style pin and clasp on the back.

 

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Here's another NS Meyer wing that is attached to a 1942-dated officer's blouse. Among the ribbons on this blouse are the Engineer society ribbon and both WW-I o'seas chevrons and WW-II bars.

 

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This is an interesting mark I haven't seen before. If they are original to the 1942 blouse, then this wing and marking may be one of the first that Meyer made after moving from the fairly common 1930s design to this profile with a more common later marking with the "sterling" off to the side.

 

PS

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This is an interesting mark I haven't seen before. If they are original to the 1942 blouse, then this wing and marking may be one of the first that Meyer made after moving from the fairly common 1930s design to this profile with a more common later marking with the "sterling" off to the side.

 

PS

Hi Paul. Thanks for the comment. I stopped back to peek at the forum one last time before getting ready to turn in and your comment got me thinking. I went back down to the basement to take another look at the uniform these wings are on and I apparently confused the wings with another uniform between taking the pix in the basement and posting them upstairs in the office. It was not the 1942-dated blouse I was thinking it was when I was upstairs posting the pictures.

 

The blouse these wings is on has WW-I overseas chevrons but no WW-II bars. I looked in the pocket and found the name tag. The name is difficult to read but the date is clear enough to make out: 7-30-38. The top picture shows the wings in their "natural habitat" and the bottom one shows the name tag with date. My apologies for confusing the blouse and the wings earlier.

 

I'll check back in tomorrow morning sometime.

 

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Does the Meyer wing have thin vertical lines in the recesses between the raised vertical bars? Can't quite tell from your picture. If plain, this may be something of a transitional wing, late 30s to early 40s.

 

PS

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Does the Meyer wing have thin vertical lines in the recesses between the raised vertical bars? Can't quite tell from your picture. If plain, this may be something of a transitional wing, late 30s to early 40s.

 

PS

Hi Paul. It sounds odd but it's really hard to tell. The top of the shield has the very obvious horizontal lines, as can be seen. In the recesses of the "radiator" it's not so easy. Looking at it under magnification, it almost looks like extremely fine vertical lines are in there. However, when I run the tip of a straight pin across the area between the raised bars, it feels smooth.

 

Also, in some areas of the recesses, I can't see them and in others I can just barely see "something" that looks like almost invisible lines there; certainly nothing as pronounced as on some other wings I have that definitely have fine lines in the recesses. Since the recesses are not subject to wear, it makes me think that what I'm seeing are the tool marks made by the die cutter that made the original die rather than deliberate lines but, not being all that knowledgeable on wings, I'm not sure. I've posted a larger photo of the shield that, hopefully, will show you what you need to see.

 

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While I'm on here responding to Paul's question, I thought I'd go ahead and post a couple more wings. This next one is a pair of wings that I'd also posted a year (or more) ago and had 7-8 comments generated on them. A couple thought they were replicas and others believed them to be genuine Juarez wings; they're marked sterling rather than the more common "coin silver." Holding them in my hands, the details are very sharp and to my non-expert eye, that look good.....but, again, that's just me.

 

Jumping back to Paul's question that I addressed above, the fine vertical lines in the recesses of the "radiator" on the shield of these wings is much more pronounced than whatever it is in the recesses of the Meyer wing above.

 

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This pair of wings are clutch-back with sterling clutches. They look like sterling to me but there are no marks whatsoever on the back. Someone mentioned in another post re. wings that the non-soldered posts indicate post war. The posts on these don't have that mound of solder at the base so that may be post-WWII. Again.....comments are welcome.

 

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Here is a third pair of what I believe to be the LeVelle pattern, based on what I've been told about one of the other identical pairs I've already posted.....any other thoughts on the maker are most welcome. As is clearly visible, they are marked sterling on the back in a recess to the right of the shield.

 

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The pictures came out slightly fuzzy when I enlarged and combined these pictures but they look like pretty generic issue-type pilot's wings to me. The back is devoid of any markings and the clutch posts have that same sort of post war look to them to my untrained eye.

 

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The clutch posts on this pair of clutch-back wings have that mound of solder at the base which I've learned from reading posts on the forum, indicate WWII period wings. They're marked sterling on the back but have no maker's markings.

 

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Here are a pair that I'm not completely sure are authentic. They look WW-I ish to me and they're similar to a pair I posted much earlier on this thread but they have no markings on the back. They look similar to the ones on Joe ***************'s site but the US really looks separately applied and there's no "overrun" of gold onto the rest of the shield. I just donm't knoww and comments on it are most welcome.

 

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This is a pair of Pilot-Observer wings I got from another forum member. This is my only set of P-O wings...they are marked Meyer and sterling on the back.

 

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A terrific collection USMCRECON! Here's a pair of British-made wings from my collection to compare with yours.

 

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Sabrejet :thumbsup:

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Here are a pair of WWII Navigator wings that I also got from a forum member. They bear strong resemblance to the LeVelle pattern Pilot's wings I've posted earlier. The only marking on the back is sterling in a recess to the right of the center.

 

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Like the Nav wings above, these Bombardier wings came from another forum member. They're two piece with highly detailed feathering. They're marked Firman on the back and have the typical English mounting pin set-up.

 

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Here are a pair I missed earlier. these are very similar to WWI pattern except that they don't havre the US on the shield. the back is smooth all the way across and there are no markings whatsoever on the back.

 

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Here are a pair of Aerial Gunner's wings. They are 1-piece wings with nice feather detail but there's no maker's mark on the back. they are marked sterling, though.

 

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Getting down near the end of the wings that I've photographed now so I'll press on to the end. The rest of these are all post-war, USAF wings except this next one which is something of a cross-over.

 

This pair came affixed to a late 40s dated USAF officer's blue uniform that I got from a forum member. However, records that I got with the group indicate he was also a pilot in WWII and I believe this set of clutch-back Pilot's wings date from late WWII. They have no markings on the back at all but do look like they have soldered clutch posts.

 

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Here are a pair of sterling Balfour-marked clutch-back Senior Pilot's wings. I think they are Korean War vintage but am not sure; could be later. Anyone with comments about the vintage of these are welcome.

 

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This is a pair or almost identical Balfour wings except that they are Command Pilot wings. I believe they are from the same era as the Senior Pilot wings above.....comments welcome, as always.

 

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