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Few Period Leather Jackets Photos

Jaguar46

New Member
What jacket is this?

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zoomer

Well-Known Member
Who Was This Guy?

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Elwyn H. Gibbon (1911-'42) graduated from the Kelly Field Advanced Flight School in 1933 and shortly thereafter was assigned to the 31st Bomb Squadron at March Field. This pic dates from that time.

Gibbon did not stay in Army service long (he may have been a reservist). By the mid '30s he was flying for China in the Foreign Volunteer Squadron (not the later AVG, but a smaller, predecessor unit).

By 1942 he was a test pilot for Consolidated-Vultee. He accompanied a shipment of P-66 Vanguards to Karachi, India (now Pakistan) that were to go to the Chinese. He crashed one of these ships at Karachi and was killed.

His family left an interesting collection of photos to the San Diego Air Museum, including this one.

Here is the AAF report on the P-66 crash. It appears Gibbon was angry with the base command and began buzzing the field, a stunt that cost him his life.
 

TOMG1401

Member
That was a life, flying in China pre AVG, didn't even know americans were flying for Chaing prior to AVG, great story
 

zoomer

Well-Known Member
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Lt. Col. Felix Waitkus flew a Lockheed Vega transatlantic in 1935 with much support from his fellow Lithuanian-Americans. He had hoped to make Kaunas, but the weather over the pond was so terrible, he had to put down in an Irish field, 1,400 miles short of the Baltic capital.
By 1940 he was chief test pilot at Boeing, where he's pictured with a B-17, two plant workers, and an A-2.
 

DJS48

Active Member
To me, it appears many of those jackets might be the Aero Leather 161 with regard to the pocket shape.
Don
 
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