WW2 USAAF B-9 parka and A-10 trousers 1943

[P-59A]

These are my B-9 flying jacket and A-10 trousers. They are supposed to go together and they replaced the leather flying gear in 1943. The jacket has no date in the code, but the trousers have the 43 in the code. Note the buttons are the same on both and reflect that 1943 time frame. I have noticed some say the word "TYPE" is a tip off to it being a repop. This is not always true.  I have also seen people say a quilted liner is also a repop. That is also not always true. For this 1943 pair "TYPE" is correct and the quilted jacket is correct. You have to look at the over all item and look at known examples to see what is correct for that item. True repops use the word "TYPE" in the post war civilian made items, but look at known examples first before you come to that conclusion. I threw in some construction details on the jacket first then the trousers. These are used and show that  use these were worn by waist gunners for the most part, but others wore them too as seen in the photo from the 303rd site. Notice the Lt. top, second from left has this on and note the retaining buttons inside the jacket to hold the outer buttons in place. He also has the F-3 heated flying suit and there is a mish mash of other gear all in one aircrew.

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This is from another site. Note the production run is a little later than mine, but they still have the brown buttons. In another post I saw someone question how the knit cuffs are not sucked into the sleeve. On this jacket that is correct.

[P-59A]

This is a fake tag from a knock off. Two things should scream at you 1) size "small", jackets tell you the actual size and 2) "original type", many fakes use that line.  Then the spec number is wrong  and the "property" is missing, on a good tag that line is found above what should read "Air Forces US Army". Almost everything I saw online was a reproduction of one kind or the other.

[P-59A]

In spite of the odd colored liner this one has the correct tag and construction details. This has a date code of 44 and would have been at the end of the production run.

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This one is very nice and has a price tag that goes along with that.

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Another nice one....so you should have an idea of what a good one looks like.

[dmar836]

Every example I have seen/heard of label giveaways was about where the word "type" is used. To me this only applies to just post-wartime to maybe the 60s so the stuff is already old. I'm not really sure why they used the word in the order they did but often even their contract order numbers are imaginary and make no sense. I suspect it was all just incidental and not necessary intending to deceive(at the time) but just to look right. JMO. Also it's amazing how many collectors will focus on one aspect while completely ignoring something else as you indicate. You even hear, "maybe it was a variant" or better, "Maybe they ran out of the correct lining material". The rampant suppositions (almost always on the side of hopeful or widhful thinking) are actually starting to take the fun out of the hobby for me.   

Chinese mfg and even American reproducers today have no aversion to using labels that are virtually indistinguishable from originals. 

Great post

[P-59A]

dmar, I agree with what you say, some of the current high end reproductions look really good and can be misleading.  The only reason I did this was after reading an older post that had all sorts of ideas being tossed around and the lack of hard information being offered. In the pre internet days information was by word of mouth and many times it wasn't quite right. Some of that old incorrect information has made its way into the new age. The problem is when looking at the post war copy's on ebay or something the items have age to them and from a photo at first glance they look ok and many times the tag is missing. It's when you start looking harder all the issues pop up. If you  don't know what to look for then you have no idea of what the issues are. Many years ago and even today guys tend to focus on the B-10 or B-15 flight jackets and they ignored the parkas, but those items have tons of post war makers too and it's the same thing as with the parkas. What is the difference between a real one and a post war one. This hobby is like all others, new guys keep popping up in the collecting field and every so often the wheel gets reinvented. This post is meant to help new collectors avoid rabbit holes. If miss information pops up it needs to be tamped down before it spreads.