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US Navy shoulder harness straps


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So, let me start with this...these are not the shoulder harness's I thought, but...  The inspection date stamp is 1951, but these are WW2 issue. I know this because they are 100% cotton NO nylon. They have the box X stitch and not the zig zag found on post war lap belts and harness's. On the inertia reel attachment they have an anchor stamp and above that is a "M" with an "x" inside of it. Also found is the number "4322" On the other side is a something and an "S" then "68557-". In the past I have had the WW2 Navy "H" harness, but this is my first of this type. It almost looks like the USAAF shoulder harness, but not quite.

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Note the difference between a USAAF and Navy "Y" harness. The USAAF one has a flat attachment to the inertia reel and the Navy one is threaded. The USAAF harness has a adjustment buckle on the back and the Navy is sewn. I do not have a Navy seat and have never seen any details on what aircraft seat would use the "H" harness and what aircraft would use the "Y" harness. If anyone knows please chime in. On crash sites I associate VS with Vought Sikorski, but I have no idea what it means on this "Y" harness.

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From that same site.    

U.S. Navy Aircraft History

By Tommy H. Thomason

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Shoulder Harness

Although it seems hard to believe, carrier pilots were only restrained by a seat belt up until about mid 1942. One mark (literally) that might distinguish a carrier pilot before then was the impression of a dent in his forehead from striking the gunsight or instrument panel coming in a barrier crash or ditching. Probably as a result of increased incidents of that kind that wartime operations produced, at least one air group added upper-body restraints to the cockpits of their airplanes. BuAer subsequently made that official, as described in the 15 June 1943 issue of Naval Aviation News. Note for example that it lists a retrofit to the SBD-3/4s but not SBD-5s, which suggests that the latter (the first of which was delivered in April 1943) came off the production line with shoulder harness.

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One more observation. This "Y" harness has no AN stamp. It can not be used on USAAF aircraft. Look at the attachment to the inertia reel. It's threaded and the AN stamped "Y" harness has a flat stamped metal attachment for the inertia real that has a hole used for a nut and bolt to secure the two together. I have not come across any inertia reel with a threaded tip so if you have one please post it so I have an idea of what I should be looking for. I do know the Navy used the AN stamped "Y" shoulder harness, that means they also used the standard inertia reel. I do not know why the Navy used the two types of "Y" shoulder harnesses. Maybe the threaded ones were used before they standardized everything...maybe.

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