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Josten Pilot Trio


5thwingmarty
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I just snagged this command pilot wing to complete this Josten pinback pilot trio.  Now if I can find the three Josten balloon wings and the T/O wing I will have examples of all the Josten made wings.

 

Josten Pilots fronts-2.JPG

Josten Pilots rears.JPG

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Very cool!  I have often wondered, is there such a thing as a maker who made all types of badges?  Like, for example, if a collector were to find every AMICO made badge would they span all the possible ratings or are there some ratings they didn't make?  Is there any such maker?

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15 hours ago, cwnorma said:

Very cool!  I have often wondered, is there such a thing as a maker who made all types of badges?  Like, for example, if a collector were to find every AMICO made badge would they span all the possible ratings or are there some ratings they didn't make?  Is there any such maker?

Can't say with certainty as wings and badges are not my primary focus but have been born, raised and live in the Attleboro MA, area where many of the manufacturers were located.  So in answer to your question I would say quite possibly , Balfour, Amcraft or VH Blackinton may have made all the types of badges.

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Nicely done Marty!  You've got to love those unique thick-hinged pins found on the back of Josten produced badges.

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Thanks guys.  I do have a Josten pinback observer as well.  

 

Per Chris' question, Meyer is the only company I am reasonably sure made all of the authorized wings, including the Airship Pilot.  Russ would know what other manufacturers made them all.  I only just realized that Amico's command and senior wing versions were all made by modifying regular pilot wings.  Has anyone seen an Amico T/O wing?  I see the Gemsco T/O wings referred to as being Amico patterned, but have not seen an Amico hallmarked T/O.

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Does anyone have, or have they even seen an AECo Balloon wing?  I know there are Airship wings, but I am not aware of any Balloon ones.

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A few years ago an AECo airship wing showed up on eBay.  I recall seeing an AECo balloon pilot wings years ago at the Great Western Gun Show.  If I had to guess, I would say that the AECo ligher than air wings are pretty scarce.  I also recall seeing an AECo TO wing as well. 

 

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Its weird, at the relative rarity of some of these ratings.  I have seen "many" (and have one in my collection) Link Airship wings, but only one or two AECo airship wings.  The AECo gilt flight surgeon wing is pretty common (relatively speaking) but the AECo TO (and various balloon wings) may only exist as one or two offs.  AECo USAAF pilot wings are common, but USN aviator wings are rather rare.  All in all, AECo was a pretty prolific manufacturer of insignia, badges, DUIs, and other related items during the 30's and 40's, but they didnt survive very long after the war and were out of business before the KW.  They never seemed to have made an especially "high" quality wing badge, but some of the DUIs and other badges were very nice quality. 

 

When I first started collecting in the mid 90's AECo badges were kind of the gold standard of mid-level collections (you could improve to a theater made and/or Luxenberg, but that was about it, it seemed) and tended to get MUCH better prices than something like a Bell or an AMCRAFT wing.  But back in the 90's not many people could put a name to who was making the Bell patterns anyway.  At least that was my sense as I started collecting.

 

I do recall that AECo balloon wing being sold for some crazy money (at least to me) at one of the Great Western Gun shows.  I have a somewhat vague recollection of talking to the dealer and being told that an AECo badge was the base for many of the cast balloon wing fakes. There is a fake out there with a small casting flaw in a circle on the front of one of the wings that he said was made off of the AECo badge.  He said something along the lines that this fake was different than the NS Meyer restrike balloon wings. I don't know how true that is, but there is no reason to think that AECo wouldn't have made balloon wings.  Not seeing one isn't proof that they weren't made, of course. 

 

Since it was many years ago, I won't quibble over my (probably faulty) memory.  But seeing as AECo did make wings pre-WWII, and it is hard to find a WWII wing that they didn't make, why wouldn't it be possible that they made the balloon series as well?  Best that I can recall, it had the same type of stamp for AECo Utica NY that you see on the airship wing.

 

I was trying to find a photo of the AECo TO wing to post.  That wing may be in one of the Silver and Pinks Books.

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I managed to find an AECo T/O last year and have posted photos here:

It is the only one I recall ever seeing so I cannot say they were all made this way (two-piece based on an Aircrew wing).  

 

There is an AECo Airship shown on Bob's website.

 

Marty

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