Aero A2 after 20 years of every day use

[xarmor]

This is my Aero A2 after 20 years of pretty hard use. I used it for many years as my primary motorcycle jacket and work jacket when the weather was colder. It has seen rain, snow, ice, hail, and the brutal Texas sun. I traveled around the U.S. and Europe with it and it is still hanging in there. I own 2 other Aero's that are not as old or worn. When the jacket was new it was pretty smooth and pretty stiff. Now it is pretty grainy and fits like a second skin. It is pretty heavy, but not as heavy as the Aero 1940 that I have. Anyway, this ol girl has been ridden hard and hung up wet, but she still looks pretty good.

After 20 years the:

Leather: Has held up extremely well. It is still smooth in some spots, and heavily grained in others. There are no holes or cracking. The leather is very soft and supple. I treated it once about 10 years ago. This jacket has seen some terrible weather on the bike and it seems to only gets better with age. The color on the leather is pretty worn in places and has lightened over the years, but all things considered, it still looks ok.

Liner: The color has faded and the ink stamps have pretty much worn away. The liner has worn through arounf the neck area but is still good in the armpit areas. Has held up well for the amount of wear time, excellent quality IMHO.

Wrist/Waist knits: Wrist knits are pretty well beat up, totally expected. Maybe I will replace them in the near future. Waist knits are still holding up well. They are holding shape perfect. There are a few small holes, I suspect some moths vandalized it.

Not much more to say except I love this Aero jacket. The quality top notch. It saved my butt in a motorcycle wreck and held up to everything mother nature could throw at it. I would not hesitate to recommend this jacket to anyone that needed a tough jacket that could be passed down for generations.

 

[xarmor]

Here are a few more pics.

 

[jeremiah]

Looks great and should serve as a strong testimonial to the strength of leather. I imagine the queries on what leather conditioner to use are made by those who don’t even have a fraction of wear on their repro jackets compared with yours.

 

[Serghei87]

Awesome jacket for the age and thanks for your review!

Would be nice to see more stories and reviews of the “old” jackets from other members

 

[B-Man2]

Another great example of a jacket that was worn and not coddled . That looks frigging awesome. Thanks for posting.

 

[Smithy]

That's what we're talking about.

A jacket like that which has had the shit worn out of it but is not necessarily the most hyper accurate will always look better than a more accurate jacket that's been molly-coddled.

Wear will always make a jacket look better.

 

[CoopDog]

Now it looks like a jacket after 6 months with the 8th Air Force in WWII

 

[ZuZu]

That's what we're talking about.

A jacket like that which has had the shit worn out of it but is not necessarily the most hyper accurate will always look better than a more accurate jacket that's been molly-coddled.

Wear will always make a jacket look better.

100% disagree on this comment. The innate problems with an A-2 copy don't go away with hard use- maybe they just get a bit disguised. The too long eps don't get shorter, the pockets don't raise themselves and the details don't fix themselves. I will say the leather on this AoS looks the part!

Personally I'd prefer a jacket which looks great from the start. If you watch historical films you can see that A-2 jackets looked new smooth and great when issued. Even after a lot of use (say 1 year in England) the jackets in films don't look so much beat up as lived in- that cool look we all love from the crew photos. The beat up look is seen more in 50s films (say Battle Hymn with Rock Hudson or Picnic with William Holden). In real life I bet home use with fishing expeditions, construction and driving work and chores around the house gave many of the originals we see their patina.

 

[Juanito]

That's what we're talking about.

Took the words right out if my mouth! It is great to see jackets won the way they should be worn--hard!

 

[Silver Surfer]

as evidenced by seeing so many originals with paint splatters on them. as a kid in the '50s, i saw vets wearing their wwll gear, including a-2s, for chores, knock around stuff, work, etc..

 

[CoopDog]

It is great to see jackets won the way they should be worn--hard!

Agree. They were designed to be working jackets, not high fashion.

 

[ausreenactor]

BRILLIANT pics of an amazing jacket. Thanks...

 

[jeremiah]

Agree. They were designed to be working jackets, not high fashion.

I agree, but I also think they were intended to look good and be a “on leave” lightweight summer evening jacket.

 

[Smithy]

100% disagree on this comment. The innate problems with an A-2 copy don't go away with hard use- maybe they just get a bit disguised.

They don't go away but a repro will always be a repro whether it's hyper accurate or not. But a well worn jacket always looks better than a mint jacket, no matter who has made it.

 

[MikeyB-17]

They were designed as a lightweight windcheater, and not intended for use outside the ZOI I believe. However when the AAF went abroad, the A-2 went with them.

 

[ZuZu]

They don't go away but a repro will always be a repro whether it's hyper accurate or not. But a well worn jacket always looks better than a mint jacket, no matter who has made it.

I think that most of the time wear increases the problems with a repro- mainly because the leather used is far away from WW2 leather. The wear on repros tends to be blatant and obvious- not subtle like seen on originals or some lucky repros made with lucky leather. The overt edge wear brings out pattern problems especially on pockets and collars.

 

[Smithy]

I think that most of the time wear increases the problems with a repro- mainly because the leather used is far away from WW2 leather. The wear on repros tends to be blatant and obvious- not subtle like seen on originals or some lucky repros made with lucky leather. The overt edge wear brings out pattern problems especially on pockets and collars.

Quite frankly I couldn't give a shit about that but that's just me. I'm of the opinion that repros will never be originals and so I don't worry about little things like that when it comes to them, although I get that others may do.

I'm probably different though than most because I work in historic aviation and handle original flying kit so I don't really attach the same degree of scrutiny to repros because all of them, no matter how good, are still at the end of the day not the real thing in my mind.

 

[CoopDog]

I agree, but I also think they were intended to look good and be a “on leave” lightweight summer evening jacket.

Weren’t officers supposed to wear Class A uniforms on leave, with perhaps a trench coat if weather dictated?

Truck drivers wore short leather jackets in the 1940’s. Not considered dressy attire back then

 

[jeremiah]

I don’t know.
I consider an A2 dressy for me.

I believe there was a reason they did depot redyes. If there were no concern for them looking good I doubt they would have bothered to cover up the wear on the ones that were re issued.

 

[ZuZu]

Quite frankly I couldn't give a shit about that but that's just me. I'm of the opinion that repros will never be originals and so I don't worry about little things like that when it comes to them, although I get that others may do.

I'm probably different though than most because I work in historic aviation and handle original flying kit so I don't really attach the same degree of scrutiny to repros because all of them, no matter how good, are still at the end of the day not the real thing in my mind.

So just buy a Cooper or Avirex and walk away Renee?