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50's era US flight helmets


Bebel
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is there any history of this pilot being around a major testing facility? I know he has a very flavorful career in aircraft. Be interesting to know how he got an experimental helmet?

 

yes I noticed right away the "Hand-writing", of course I picked this baby out as soon as you posted the collection ;) :thumbsup:

 

Great helmet my friend. this is the "sleeper" of the grouping.

 

As soon as I get down to the Museum, I will get some pictures for you and some tech-data.

 

r/DRH

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Let's start with the DH-5, which may be very rare based on what I've read. The excellent helmet website at http://www.best-of-flightgear.dk/aph5helm.htm says, "This DH-5-3 helmet was Gentex' bid for a successor to the H-4 helmet but it was a MSA design, the APH-5, that won the competition."

 

 

How rare is this helmet? I can only find two references online to the DH-5 helmet and they both refer to the "DH-5-3" and one site says only 100 of those were made.

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That P1-B helmet still has its original HS-38A headset receivers, dated August 1954. On the left side of the helmet is a connector for the microphone and there is a cable that carries the mike and headset signals to the aircraft. In the first versions of the P-1 there were two cables that connected the helmet to the aircraft.

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I wanted to show the inside of the HGU-2/P helmet. It had pads made from leather bonded to foam. The other side of the foam was bonded to what looks like cheese cloth and that in turn was attached to the inside of the helmet by a velcro-type material. If you've ever had an old pair of headphones you know that foam can pretty much turn to crumbs over the decades over the years and that's what happened here and the leather was pretty detached from the shell and there was loose foam dust and crumbs all over the inside. I fixed this today.

 

First I took off the earphone pieces. These are attached with small nylon cord that goes through holes drilled in the shell. A simple square knot keeps them attached.

 

hg10.jpg

 

I then started removing the foam residue from the back of the leather and the the "cheese cloth." I then used thick double-sided tape to re-attach the leather to cloth. I did not remove the cloth from the helmet as I was not sure how well it would go back together it seemed to be securely attached, so why mess with a good thing. A piece of green Scotch scrubbing removed the foam residue.

 

Here's how the HGU-2/P looks with one piece of leather re-attached:

 

hg8.jpg

 

And here's how it looks with all three pieces of leather and the earpieces installed. The thickness of the double-side tape helps maintain the same look it had with the original foam and of course now it's all nice and neat:

 

hg9.jpg

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I had read that the P series helmets had a paper tag in them, but when I looked in mine all I saw was a cloth tag on the suspension. Well today I dug around and found the paper label: these will tell you about the shell and give you more a better clue to age and model than will the suspension label, which I understand can have a different model number than the shell label.

 

On this paper label we can indeed see the manufacturing date of August 1954, which is the same as the date on the earpieces in this particular helmet. It is not uncommon to see P-1 series helmets that were updated to more modern earpieces such as the H-143/AIC earpieces shown in the HGU-2/P above.

 

p8.jpg

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Here is my SAC Modified HGU-2/P. I haven't been able to find much specific about it using internet searches. Does anyone have more info on these?

 

thanks,

Dave

post-341-1252880033.jpg

post-341-1252880044.jpg

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Here is my SAC Modified HGU-2/P. I haven't been able to find much specific about it using internet searches. Does anyone have more info on these?

 

thanks,

Dave

 

Very nice: those apparently are not common: there is mention of them (and more photos) here: http://www.best-of-flightgear.dk/hgu02helmid.htm - they note that "HGU-2/P Strategic Air Command

Apparently the Strategic Air Command (SAC) intended to use the HGU-2/P helmet without visor as a successor to the MB-4 helmet. The helmets were produced without the standard holes for the visor housing and three snaps were added to the brow area to allow the fitting of a bill like the one used on the HGU-9/P. This is documented by period photographs and a few surviving helmets but more detailed information has so far to be discovered."

 

The SAC HGU-2/P they show does not even have ear pads or headsets, so yours may really be a rare one.

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Very nice: those apparently are not common: there is mention of them (and more photos) here: http://www.best-of-flightgear.dk/hgu02helmid.htm - they note that "HGU-2/P Strategic Air Command

Apparently the Strategic Air Command (SAC) intended to use the HGU-2/P helmet without visor as a successor to the MB-4 helmet. The helmets were produced without the standard holes for the visor housing and three snaps were added to the brow area to allow the fitting of a bill like the one used on the HGU-9/P. This is documented by period photographs and a few surviving helmets but more detailed information has so far to be discovered."

 

The SAC HGU-2/P they show does not even have ear pads or headsets, so yours may really be a rare one.

 

Thanks for the info and link. Guess I got lucky in finding this one.

Dave

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Okay and here's the P-1B. These were used with goggles but could be modified, as this one was, to have the fixed visor.

 

p1.jpg

 

 

Here's a P-1B in an illustration from a T-33 Flight Manual:

 

p1bhelmet.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
I had read that the P series helmets had a paper tag in them, but when I looked in mine all I saw was a cloth tag on the suspension. Well today I dug around and found the paper label: these will tell you about the shell and give you more a better clue to age and model than will the suspension label, which I understand can have a different model number than the shell label.

 

On this paper label we can indeed see the manufacturing date of August 1954, which is the same as the date on the earpieces in this particular helmet. It is not uncommon to see P-1 series helmets that were updated to more modern earpieces such as the H-143/AIC earpieces shown in the HGU-2/P above.

 

You are right. Some P-1B helmets were modified with the modern H-75/AIC radio set when new radio system came in service on jets in the middle of the 50's. New products directly from the fabric was the P-4 version (1955).

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  • 1 year later...

I would like to wake up this post. So, I show another HGU-2/P from 1960. Please let us know your own treasures... :thumbsup:

 

hgu2p009.jpg

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hbtcoveralls
Is there anybody who is collecting flight helmets from this period?

 

Some helmets of my personal collection... Would be happy to see others from this forum members. :thumbsup:

 

p1a001.jpg

 

p1b001.jpg

 

p3001d.jpg

 

h3002.jpg

 

parachute001.jpg

great collection. Did you get the last one with the parachute and raft seat pack from Bell's Aviation by any chance? I used to have the whole set just like it but sold it to GM about 4 years ago. My helmet said "on scene commander" on the back and had a boom mike as well as the O2 mask. If it is from my collection, then I'm happy it found a good home

Tom Bowers

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great collection. Did you get the last one with the parachute and raft seat pack from Bell's Aviation by any chance? I used to have the whole set just like it but sold it to GM about 4 years ago. My helmet said "on scene commander" on the back and had a boom mike as well as the O2 mask. If it is from my collection, then I'm happy it found a good home

Tom Bowers

 

Hello Tom,

 

I never bought any item from GM. The three items on the photos have been all acquired separatly.

 

Franck

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  • 4 years later...

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