Angus & Coote of Sydney, AUS: examples and patterns

[rustywings]

I thank you all, individually and collectively, for your generous responses and friendship!

 

Here’s a couple of snaps of the “Angus & Coote” produced Pilot-rating hat-trick. 

 

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Hat trick indeed! Congratulations and thank you for your continued generosity in sharing your collection.

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Adding my Angus & Coote examples.

- Sr. Pilot

- Pilot

- Souvenir commemorative

- Technical Observer

- Navigator

- Aircrew

[mtnman]

Sheer splendor Tod.... just beautiful examples of a very unique and clearly exclusive design by a classic and well-known Aussie insignia maker. A fine collection of beautiful World War II era Sterling wings my friend. 

[Austin R]

Hi everyone, 

 

I picked up a collection of glider wings and this Angus & Coote wing was in it. I’ve gone through this thread and feel that it may be authentic. However, it doesn’t appear there has been any true glider pilots found. The shield has the imperfect lines and the “&” looks right.

 

let me know your thoughts 

[Tonomachi]

I'm not an expert on flight wings but do collect glider pilot wings and per the "tells" in this thread you have an original WW2 Angus & Coote manufactured US glider pilot wing.  I thought Angus & Coote never manufactured a US glider pilot wing because in all these years I thought not one had surfaced on the collector's market.  Now one wonders why more have not surfaced in all these years if they in fact were manufactured.

[pfrost]

Hi everyone,

If you read the thread carefully, there are probably just a few examples of "good alphabet wings" (not an absolute lack of these badges!). For example, I have spotted a mere handful (around 3 or 4, including a couple on this thread and one featured in the More Silver Wings, Pinks and Green book) that I'm inclined to believe are authentic glider badges.  Similarly, I've come across a slightly larger number of service pilot wings (perhaps 5-10) that I believe to be vintage. However, the elusive liaison pilot wings have yet to appear in any collection that I know of -- although Russ is the most likely to have one. Have any of you had the fortune of encountering them?

 

As for some of the rarer versions of the A&G marked wings, I have seen 2 TO wings, and 2 Command Pilot wings and maybe 3 Senior pilot wings (many of those are shown on this particular web).  I also have a jeweler-modified flight engineer wing (also on this thread). I have even seen a USN submarine qualification badge made by A&C as well as some marine EGAs (which makes sense). So that being said, I think it is not unreasonable to assume that there were some A&G wing ratings that may only exist in the 10-30's of units.  However, measuring a "negative" is always hard as not all collections are available to study.  Still, I suspect if they made one or two TO wings, they may have also made a few liaison wings (and glider and service pilot wings) as well.

 

Although it is hard to know for sure because Australia is some distance away! Who knows, perhaps in Sydney, every 5-dime surplus store has a small box of NOS Angus and Coote wings? Also, IIRC, Angus and Coote may still be making badges, so it's not like they couldn't have made wings far after the war was ended for American servicemen returning from the Pacific--or even potentially heading off towards Korea a few years later. I have no idea.

 

What muddies the water more than a little is that about 10-15 years ago, a bunch of well-crafted fakes hit the market. They were, ironically enough, TOO good, and it is their near perfection that actually helps differentiate good from bad.  In that mix of crapola were fake alphabet wings that mostly used riveted on G, L, or S shields over the fake pilot wing base. Again, the copies were "near perfect" and lacked all the tells of the vintage wings. There are also some very good "old school" cast fakes.

 

If I had to offer my opinion (say my arms were twisted behind my back!  LOL), I offer some warnings that I see some very concerning signs of this wing being cast. I would point out the very soft detail on the hallmark.  There are other signs of casting as well.  My impression is that this is NOT one of the unicorn wings that I do believe do exist.

 

Best

P

[pfrost]

Also, while it is hard to know for sure, but this does look like a "museum quality reproduction" made by HeWhoShallNotBeNamed.

 

http://1903.us/WWII-US-Army-Glider-Pilot-wing-sterling-Angus-Coote-p515.html

[5thwingmarty]

Patrick, did you mean to say this does NOT look like a JoeW wing.  The shapes of the applied shields are very different.  

[pfrost]

I suspect it may be a HeWhoShallNotBeNamed base and a cast shield off of another type wing. You are correct the shape of the shield doesn’t match the A&C wings. I have no clue if the whole thing was made that way or is a Frankenstein monster made after the fact. Or even if I’m totally wrong on all counts. It’s just my opinion 

[5thwingmarty]

There are two wings on Bob's site that appear to have the same style of G shield, not A&C wings but possibly other Australian made wings.  Those wings are not maker marked, and I cannot tell if those G shields are applied or struck as part of the wing.

 

I don't have any Australian wings, maybe one New Zealand made and have no skill in telling if these are real or not, just pointing out wings with the matching shield.

[Kiwiman]

On 1/16/2022 at 8:36 AM, rustywings said:

I thank you all, individually and collectively, for your generous responses and friendship!

 

Here’s a couple of snaps of the “Angus & Coote” produced Pilot-rating hat-trick. 

 

Hi,

 

I have just joined this online forum ("Kiwiman"). Please see my post of a set of New Zealand made WW2 US aircrew wings.

[Threewood]

On 3/7/2019 at 1:16 PM, pfrost said:

I wanted to add a recent pick up.. a A&G service pilot wing that I picked up a bit ago (thanks to mghcal for the tip!). This is a very nice thread and it would behoove anyone who wants to buy an A&G wing to study this discussion carefully.

 

The base is a good A&G pilot wing, with a soldered on "S" in a shield.

 

I suppose it is always possible that someone tried to jazz up a good A&G pilot wing to a service pilot rating. But I don't think that is the case here.

 

P

 

 

Patrick, I know this is an old post but could you get a detailed close up picture of the shield?

[pfrost]

Here you go.  The wing in the Pinks and Greens wing is probably a good one.

 

[mtnman]

5 minutes ago, pfrost said:

Here you go.  The wing in the Pinks and Greens wing is probably a good one.

 

Good shot man! Excellent 👍🏻 assessment Patrick!