Trying to ID this flight helmet, no id numbers on the helmet. Looking for date range for this style helmet, who made it, any other useful information. According to Wikipedia the insignia is the 1st Sqd, 18th Cavalry Regiment, part of the California Army National Guard. It was equipped with AH-IF Cobras. Is this information correct for this helmet? Was the 18th deployed to Vietnam? This was a donation to our local thrift shop so am trying to find out its approx. value today, have no idea how the insignias effect value. Looks to be in fairly good condition, one of the earpieces is damages, cloth is torn and part of the foam is missing. Not sure if any of the pads inside are missing or not. I can provide more photos if necessary. Also have the flight bag to go with it, DSA 100-70-C-2054 which is in very good condition. Thanks for the help

It's an APH-5 I believe, probably the squadron commander's helmet and very cool! For comparison here's a plain OD one for $450:

http://www.bellsaviation.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BA&Product_Code=25100&Category_Code=HH

Looks like an APH-5 helmet. They were the common helicopter helmet through the early to late 60's. I don't see that the 18th Cavalry ever saw Vietnam action. It is in great shape, and with the graphics my guess would be in the $200 range.

We posted at the same exact time. National Guard units were probably still wearing these in the 1970s which is my guess for dating this.

Thanks for the info, now that I have a type of helmet to look for, I did a quick image search and now the question is what "sub-model" of the APH-5 do I have? There seems to be a very large variation in the helmets that are identified as APH-5. Various nuts, bolts, screws and other parts seem to vary quite a bit between helmets. Is there any way to sort out these variations, does the variation effect the date of the helmet?

Helmets were modified on a unit level to suit the individual who wore it (I did this, it was called the ALSE, Aviation Life Support Equipment shop). One pilot may prefer the old style mike boom while another wants the newer version and these parts were swapped and changed out so that almost no two helmets were identical. I preferred the TPL liner in place of the webbing straps, lip light on the mike boom, and a Velcro patch on the rear for a goggle counter-weight. They had to be functional and comfortable and tailored to the crewmember so there was a lot of leeway.

The helmet appears to be an APH-5 and not an APH-5A. Not to be confused with the USN/USMC APH-5 and APH-5A. The earlier Army APH-5 helmets were white and the later ones were green. White ones were painted green also. The helmet is probably from the mid 1960s, possibly earlier. It has the two silver colored metal tabs at the lower edges of the visor housing for use with the earlier slotted visors. The Army APH-5A (later white and green) had plastic visor tracks and a visor with tracks on the sides. Earlier Army APH-5 helmets had a thicker rubber edge roll and a push button style visor lock knob. Later helmets had a thin black rubber edge beading and a twist type visor lock knob. The twist type knob could replace the push button knob on earlier helmets. Also, the screws below the the chin strap were for leather tabs with snaps for oxygen mask attachment (MS-22001 mask). Earlier white APH-5 helmets had fiberglass visor housings and the later

white and green ones had plastic visor housings. Hope this helps.

I want to thank everyone for the information that you provided. I volunteer at our local community thrift store and we will be putting this on our Ebay page for auction probably in the next week or so.. I will post a link here in case anyone might have an interest in bidding on it when we list it. It will have the carry bag and 5 sealed sizing liners to go with it. Thanks again.

Our community thrift store has put the helmet on Ebay for auction so if there is any interest here is the information.

 

Ebay title

Vintage APH-5 Flight Helmet 1960's (18th Cavalry Helicopter Unit)

 

Item Number

391131287640

 

Thanks

The White Elephant? My parents live in Green Valley.