Electrically Heated Flying Clothing

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5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

A specialist dealer has a set of 24 volt heated clothing comprising separate jacket and trousers with wartime dates.
These bear the stores number of 22C/NIV. Apparently they were made for the USAAF by a British manufacturer.
What British aircraft had need of these for their crews? The only type I can think of is the relatively few Fortresses operated by the RAF. Suggestions welcome!

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21 years

Posts: 1,746

Certainly RAF air gunners wore electrically heated suits. A late workmate had one fail on him while in the tail turret of a Lanc!
mmitch.

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5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

The RAF certainly had electrically heated flying suits but these were one piece (looking rather like an overall) or heated jackets of a pattern unlike the sort I mentioned but these had British stores reference numbers.

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5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

A very interesting example of WW2 British made heated flying clothing The two piece suit is beige in colour and has a brown ribbed woollen fabric at the sleeve and leg cuffs along with the jackets collar. The brown ribbed fabric is worn in a couple of places with minor holes. The suit is a size Large.

The jacket is labelled:

Electronically Heated Jacket


Con. No. 10587/C 30(d)


Code M.W. / A.V.S.


Type S.H.P.


Ref. 22C / NIV


Volts 24


Watts 128


Serial No. 1921

The Bakelite 2 pin plugs on the jacket are Air Ministry marked with the kings crown. The jacket is closed with 7 double buttons.

The braced trousers are labelled:

Serial No. 145


Stores Ref. No. 22C / NIV


Pants, Large


Contract 1065


24 Volt

The trousers are also stamped with a red / pink broad arrow. The white webbing braces on the trousers are fully adjustable and in excellent condition. The trousers have a zip fly and the connecting Bakelite plug to the jacket is Air Ministry marked again with the kings crown.

The suits umbilical cord is present and again in very good condition. The round 2 pin metal attachment is marked ‘NIPHAN N5208’.

The stores ref ‘NIV’ translates to ‘Not In Vocabulary’. These suits were made under license in Britain for the American Air Force (USAAF) bomber crews stationed in the UK during the war.

Member for

5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

Excellent! I can now add aircraft with rear gunners to the list of types likely to have used this form of clothing. I had been baffled by British 22C stores numbers for what was an American design and could only think of the B-17.

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5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

Thank you, Don. It seems they were pretty common items but although ancient myself I was unaware of their existence! Unfortunately your first link (to a PDF) won't open.

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5 years 5 months

Posts: 126

An excellent link, Don - and I am indebted to you for throwing some light on the subject which I'm sure will be a benefit to many readers.

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13 years

Posts: 520

The light coloured suit in the photo looks like a Taylor floatation suit, it was light coloured (yellow), to aid visibility if the wearer was in the sea. It was stuffed with kapok and had pockets for kapok pads. The suit was worn mainly by gunners as they worked in cramped positions where a lifejacket could get in the way. There was a version of the 1940 pattern flying suit, the 1941 pattern, that was electrically heated. Both were green "sidcot" suits, the difference being the press stud electrical contacts and wiring. A lot of the 1941 pattern suits were used by motorcyclists after the war but with the wiring removed.

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13 years 11 months

Posts: 12

The suit in the photo was definitely an electrically heated suit, my dad had an identical one in his kit after the war it was a beige colour, he was not a gunner and never wore it, not too sure what happened to it though, I still have his Irvine jacket and helmet complete with oxygen mask, I lost the boots during a house move, obviously nicked by the removal men. He also had a pair of black flying overalls with zip front, cuffs, ankles etc., I used to wear them when mending my car which in hindsight was very stupid.

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13 years 11 months

Posts: 12

Bunsen Honeydew has a point regarding flotation suits, apparently the electrically heated suits also had a floatation feature as well, I discovered this on the Pathfinder website, before take off the gunners put their suits on in a purpose built room , they were plugged into a low voltage supply to check that the suits had no hotspots and that the suit was working, a wartime artist recorded this procedure as the attached sketch indicates, the other sketch is of the suits electric heating features and describes its ability to act as a flotation suit as well. Thinking about it, if the gunner had to ditch on water, the suit would drag him under without a flotation feature, I was only a boy when I saw the suit my dad had, but I remember it being very bulky. the right hand sketch is titled 'Lancaster Gunners Hotting Up'

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Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 1,911

I'm a bit confused by all this.

Why would a heated suit manufactured in the UK for the U.S.A.A.F. have an Air Ministry Stores Reference rather than an American one?

And surely, if it were intended for use in an American aircraft, whether U.S.A.A.F. or R.A.F. operated, it would be 28v. rather than 24 volts?

My thoughts lean towards a batch of specially manufactured suits, intended for use on a small scale in a British design by the R.A.F./F.A.A., and thus not considered necessary to be in the Stores Vocabulary.

Bit of a wild guess but how about something like the pressurised Wellington VI, intended for very high altitude bombing/target marking? Perhaps this suit offered better protection against the cold than the standard kit of the period?

But then again, what's all this about:

Electronically Heated Jacket

Just a typo by someone or is this description of significance?