3-Piece Pilot Wing from the SOS

[5thwingmarty]

Another pick up from the SOS this year (thanks to Dave Hoover).  It is a heavy, vaulted slick-back wing where the center of the shield was cut out.  A spacer shield was then attached and then the finish shield attached to the spacer making it really stand out.  The finish shield is the same type used to make the 2-piece wings where the base wing is the same one used to make cadet cap badges.

 

John Ferguson saw this one at the SOS and showed me photos of his identical wing.  

[warguy]

Nice looking wing from a great dealer. 

[LuftStalg1]

Very interesting!  The second one looks as if to be a AAF cadet hat badge base that has been modified into a wing. 

[jeff41st]

Congrats on a nice find Marty! Have not seen one like that before. Too bad they didn't use a more common wing to get that center shield from😕I'm still looking for a pilot in that "Chicago" (Noble?) pattern.

[5thwingmarty]

The second wing was one I could find my photos of that illustrated the other type of wing where this shield was used.  All of my other wings made from this type of base wing have more typical pins and catches.  I just looked at my other two-piece wings and found two that have the same unique large ball catch as this three-piece wing, perhaps another clue that these were all made by the same company.  Also, in comparing the three-piece wing to a non-modified example of the base wing, they have the exact same fittings and the same incised sterling mark, except on the un-modified wing the sterling mark is in the center behind the shield so it is clear to me this was a "factory" conversion and not just a random jeweler conversion.  I will take and post some other comparison photos this evening.

[5thwingmarty]

Here is the back of the non-modified wing in the same pattern.

 

[5thwingmarty]

Here is another wing in this pattern that also appears to tie it to the same manufacturer of the two-piece wings.  Based on the same pilot wing as the three-piece wing used that started this thread, this Glider Pilot wing was made by adding the shield to the base wing.  It has the same fittings with the large-ball catch and the same small incised sterling mark.

 

I don't have an example of the two-piece cap badge based Glider Pilot wing to directly compare, but I do have the Service and Liaison Pilot wings, and the dimensions of the shields, styles of letters and fineness of the horizontal line match this applied Glider shield.  To me this is another indicator that these wings were all from the same source.

 

I think Russ has examples of both these wings, so hopefully he can directly compare the applied shields on them to verify if they are the same or not.

[jeff41st]

This is my only example of that pattern. Same larger ball catch, but no Sterling hallmarks. I looked at my 4 examples of the two-piece wings and none of them have this larger ball catch/pin assembly. 

 

[5thwingmarty]

Here is a phot of the backs of two of my other two-piece wings, and Aircrew and a Bombardier which have the same large ball catch.  This Aircrew wing is the only one in the two-piece wing set where it appears the front device was riveted on.

 

Also, I heard from Russ that he only has the same letter wings as I do in the 3" versions.