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Whatever Happened to the Goldsmith A2?

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
It’s been a year now, August 2018 that we were in the midst of a new discovery, the Goldsmith A2. A great deal of research and photo analysis was done by a number of people and if you were following the thread , it was impressive the way that small pieces of information were collected, correlated and corroborated and placed into a grand puzzle that soon became the Goldsmith A2 jacket. Eventually Ken from Aero produced a limited number of 25 of the jackets based on the actual contract information that revealed that 25 had been delivered to the military. The jackets were sold and Aero was effectively out of the Goldsmith A2 market. Headwind was on the verge of releasing their interpretation of the Goldsmith A2 jacket and if memory serves me correctly, as of April 2019 had produced 2 test jackets. However despite the hype, the imminent release of their A2 never materialized, and after much hoopla the Goldsmith A2 faded back into the annals of history. I don’t know if any of you are disappointed by any of this, or even care about it, I know I was and that’s why I’m asking the question. If any of you feel the same disappointment post away...
 
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Officer Dibley

Well-Known Member
Like i said at the time Burt, a lot of hullaballooo and hype. Never seen one on here . Not new nor with wear.

Emperor’s new clothes syndrome and not for the first time ;) Platon never seemed to catch on massively despite some hard sell by some members .....

Fashions swing. Soon we’ll be back to jackets with little grain being a la mode as our french speakers might say. I do think the grain thing has gone to extremes compared to most WW2 examples
 

Juanito

Well-Known Member
I saw one as a resale on TFL. It had an olive lining and a size 40 if I remember correctly. Beautiful jacket.
 

Officer Dibley

Well-Known Member
The VLJ owners seem to have been thunderously silent Ken .... it goes without saying Aero make great jackets but the lack of subsequent cooing and boasting is odd
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
The VLJ owners seem to have been thunderously silent Ken .... it goes without saying Aero make great jackets but the lack of subsequent cooing and boasting is odd

I've just had a look through the sales records of these, I can only positively ID two as VJL members, neither member rarely ( if ever) posts. That's not to say I've not missed anyone
The last 2 of the 25 are still outstanding due to two of our A-2 machinists being off on long term health issues
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
The Headwind Version of the A2 has never been released. The last info provided on it was last April at which time the second test jacket had been completed and after some minor revisions the jacket would be released and Headwind was taking orders and selling it at a pre- production price of $525.00.
Did anyone here place an order for one? If so what happened? Is the production of the jacket dead on arrival? After several pages of research and exchanges of photographs and suggestions , it just seemed to die a quiet death.
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
I wasn't referring to the Aero Goldsmith or actually Aero in general either. I was actually thinking more in relation to some other maker whose recent stuff looks wrinklier than a centenarian's wedding tackle!

I've missed that one, pray tell who's got the wrinkles? and yes I do love your phrasing!!!
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
I've missed that one, pray tell who's got the wrinkles? and yes I do love your phrasing!!!

Hi Ken,

Re wrinkles and overly grainy stuff, I think some of ELC's stuff of late has been going a bit too far in that direction IMO especially comparing to photos of jackets from the war. Obviously a 75 year old jacket can have developed a fair whack of graining and creasing but to my eyes some of their stuff is trying to make the leather look like it's 75+ years old while the rest of it is brand new. Looks odd to my eyes.

Two 4th FG images of jackets which by the time the photos were taken, the jackets had been worn operationally for at least over a year...

QhwYiUn.jpg


TjN9ds8.jpg


There's creasing but the grain isn't excessive.

Obviously others may disagree but I personally reckon Officer Dibley brings up a good point about graining going too far with some repros.
 

Julius

Active Member
I don't see any grain in the repros currently.
Who's got them.
The only grainy elc jackets are the ones on their website.
 
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