RAF C Type Flying Helmet

Description

RAF C Type Flying Helmet

Nice C Type flying helmet, reasonable size, leather still soft , some leather damage to small areas (see photo’s) all press studs and straps complete.

One ear cup has shrunk a bit due to heat or sunlight(see photo’s)

Clean inside on shammy leather.

RAF C Type Flying Helmet

During the first years of aviation, pilots started wearing leather flying helmets as a form of protection from the cold and the noise of aircraft engines. Leather was becoming a popular choice for protective gear with the rise of motor sport and aviation at the start of the 1900s. It has many advantages that made it the ideal material for flying helmets. It is warm, durable, impermeable to liquids therefore waterproof, flexible and can be cut to curve around the head. It is wind-proof and has the great advantage of not accumulating dust.^[1] It was also found that leather helmets offered a level of protection against fire.^[2] British Engineers led by Charles Edmond Prince added Throat microphones & earphones into these helmets during World War I for hands free communications in the noisy and windy environment of aircraft cockpits.

The C type flying helmet was introduced in the summer of 1941. It was made from bands of brown chrome leather with ear phones in rubber mounts. There is no known information concerning its use during the war and was donated by the Royal Air Force Museum as a gift for the opening of the National Air and Space building in 1976.

RAF C Type Flying Helmet