Instrument fliers in SATs, 1934

[zoomer]

"View of four unidentified students of the first class of instrument flying and landing instruction, A.A.C. Mail Operations, April 11, 1934." Pictured in front of a B-10 at Wright Field. Breeches and high boots, less common on flight lines after 1930, were evidently deauthorized for flying during 1934. Photos of them being worn with A-2s are very rare. All jackets are Security 32-485s.

 

[Earloffunk]

I really like those buttoned pocket flaps

 

[MikeyB-17]

I gotta say I think the riding breeches look bloody silly. The A-2's look good though.

 

[zoomer]

Even horsey folk don't wear them so loose-fitting anymore.

I have a probable ID on the far right pilot, Lt. (later Col.) Signa A. Gilkey. He became chief of the flight test section at Wright Field, and by 1946, when the pic below was taken, was CO at Muroc AAF. In Korea, he served with the Far East Air Force and was awarded the Legion of Merit.

In 1941, while flying the AAC's second P-38, Maj. Gilkey experienced total loss of control during a dive but managed to steady the aircraft during descent. A condition called compressibility lockup was to blame, and it was thought that Gilkey was the first man to approach the speed of sound (achieving Mach .68) and survive. A few months later, a Lockheed pilot reproduced the fault in another P-38, crashed and died.

 

[zoomer]

I have a lead that the man 2nd from right may be Beirne Lay, Jr., commissioned a 2Lt in 1933 and later a colonel, bomb group CO, writer and screenwriter. Among his achievements is the novel and screenplay for Twelve O'Clock High, co-written with producer Sy Bartlett.