In defence of Alpha Industries.

[MauldinFan]

Until not long ago, movie studios would give promo items to people who worked on a film or TV show. I have a few of them and Alpha jackets were a very common item.
"Space: Above and Beyond" TV series crew MA1 jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr
"Armageddon" movie crew MA1 jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr
"Contact" movie crew MA1 jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr

And while I have a real Gibson & Barnes NASA jacket, I most like wearing this Alpha copy:
My personal Space Camp jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr

 

[rob20uk]

I've never really had a thing for nylon or the MA-1 style (or patches frankly) but I recently decided to pick up a sale Alpha MA-1 complete with NASA patches just to see for myself. It's too warm to wear it just yet but I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed. I reckon it'll be a very good beater as you say @London Cabbie and just right for nippy winter days getting stuff done.

I'm a bit of a Public Service Broadcasting fan so the NASA patches will be spot on when I'm listening to The Race for Space. I don't think I'm the demographic to leave the Remove before flight tag on though

Have you any pictures?

 

[Spitfireace]

I immediately remembered one young technician at my old airline who was a big fan of Alpha jackets and always wore this comical Remove before flight Alpha's tag on his jacket sleeve pocket. One day, his colleagues in the locker room joked and changed it for a real tag from plane (if anyone hasn’t seen it, they quite big). The guy was so tired after his shift that he realized that he had a huge red snake hanging from his sleeve when he almost reached the security control post .

The first thing I did when I got my CWU-45/P 50th Anniversary jacket was take off the "ribbons"

. I'm not walking around with those on! Oh, I also cut off the little "Made in China" tag that's attached to the big Alpha label as I don't want to be reminded.

 

[Spitfireace]

I was doing a search the other day for Alpha CWU-45/P's and they are well over three hundred dollars Canadian new. That includes eBay and Amazon. I bought mine for one hundred and thirty at a local pilots supply store in 2009. A local shop is selling them now for three hundred and sixty dollars. For that price might as well get the real issued thing. Except they don't come in black.

 

[Skyhawk]

Not all their stuff is inaccurate:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1759990294...1165500&segname&recoId=175999029485&recoPos=1

 

[rob20uk]

I ended up getting this one as my first Alpha. I am planning on using it as a daily beater instead of a Bronson.

 

[B-Man2]

Late to the party but I thought I’d post a couple of photos of my Vietnam era 1965 Alpha MA-1 with reversible orange side. As most of you guys know, the early MA-1s had an orange side that was reversible in the event that a pilot parachuted out. Once he hit the ground he could reverse the jacket to the orange side to make it easier to be seen by the rescue crews . Not really a well thought out plan as the enemy could see the orange side just as well as the rescue crews, so the orange lining was discontinued in later models. Many of the repros were made with orange linings but were not reversible and did not have a two sided reversible zipper as shown below . Please feel free to post your comments below .
Cheers .

 

[taiAtari]

Isn't it the other way around (no pun intended)? As far as I know early MA-1s had a green/grey lining while later ones had the reversible orange. I believe when they were discontinued for pilots and only issued for ground crew they lost the orange lining again.

 

[B-Man2]

Isn't it the other way around (no pun intended)? As far as I know early MA-1s had a green/grey lining while later ones had the reversible orange. I believe when they were discontinued for pilots and only issued for ground crew they lost the orange lining again.

Interesting point. We have a couple of guys who are much more knowledgeable about this than I . Hopefully they will weigh in here.
I know this one is a 1965 MA-1 and I think that they discontinued the orange lined ones around 1970.

MA-1 bomber jacket - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Spitfireace]

Just bought a Skyline 1961 MA-1 couldn't help myself. I was born in 1961, just turned 62 couple of weeks ago.

 

[taiAtari]

I'm basing this on the info that used to be available at the 'jetpilot overseas' blog. According to this the early MA-1 variants (MIL-J-8279 to MIL-J-8279B) have a grey/green liner, while those from 1961 up to 1970 (MIL-J-8279C to MIL-J-8279D) have an orange, reversible one (last one from Sportsmasters INC. with date 18 June 1969). Someone more knowledgeable and/or in possession of 'Full Gear' will probably be able to confirm or disprove.

 

[Spitfireace]

The 61 skyline definitely has an orange liner.

 

[Rutger]

Not all their stuff is inaccurate:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175999029485?mkevt=1&plmtId=1110700101&mesgId=3014&mkpid=0&emsid=enull.m3698.l7534&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid&bu=43747302330&trkId=d144b4ef-238e-49a0-a1d7-7ca74e69c882&cnvId=29f8e0f4-fcbc-4b3b-8055-f5fe3c8c9490&osub=-1~1&crd=20231201165500&segname&recoId=175999029485&recoPos=1

View attachment 129575

Ah yes, because that one is not a repro but a genuine contract jacket.
The only reason to make nylon repros would be a cost issue I presume. Or rather a profit issue.

 

[Rutger]

Alpha's contract MA-1's are super, quality wise.
They are also quite short in the back. Even for an MA-1. And rather fluffy.
But the quality...wow !

 

[rob20uk]

I was struck with the quality

Alpha's contract MA-1's are super, quality wise.
They are also quite short in the back. Even for an MA-1. And rather fluffy.
But the quality...wow !

of them as well. They se pretty robust and better than the reproduction style from some of the Asian manufacturers. But I guess they are modern and very different products.

 

[rob20uk]

Just a quick question. What are the little brass bullet like things in the pockets for?

I assume “The "bullet" shaped pieces are actually pen caps. They were used to prevent ink from ruining your jacket if a pen would happen to leak. These were customary on all jackets worn by the military.”

 

[taiAtari]

Yeah , I guess a somewhat less geeky version of the pocket protector. Probably more to protect against piercing the fabric than containing ink. But I'm just guessing here.

 

[Thomas Koehle]

I ended up getting this one as my first Alpha. I am planning on using it as a daily beater instead of a Bronson.

View attachment 129647

Nice one!

How much are they going for these days?

 

[Rutger]

Just a quick question. What are the little brass bullet like things in the pockets for?

I assume “The "bullet" shaped pieces are actually pen caps. They were used to prevent ink from ruining your jacket if a pen would happen to leak. These were customary on all jackets worn by the military.”

View attachment 130657

I was once held at airport security because they had seen these two ink caps ("bullets") in the arm pocket on the metal detector gate. They wanted me to take them out of the pocket but they sat so tight that I couldn't get them out whatever I tried.
After ten minutes they gave up insisting on me getting them out because the queue was getting longer quite rapidly.

 

[rob20uk]

Nice one!

How much are they going for these days?

The one I got is currently £250 in sports direct here in the UK. I got my one new but without tags from eBay for £125.

It’s the space shuttle 100th mission jacket. I am planning on swapping out the 100th mission patch with a James Web telescope one.