Great question, but there is no short answer, unfortunately. So this does mean: all the cloth summer helmets issued prior to December 1944 (that aren't the older M-450s) are AN-6540s? and, this latter would identify the Navy-only subpattern of the jointly-developed AN-H-15? Great stills from vintage film! As for these helmets, they by starting in Octber 1944 shortly pre-date the identical AN-6542 made of cloth. An example shown below (man second from left with nylon suit and helmet) as well as a list of Slote & Klein's contracts of $50K, or more, showing the production chronology. If you study your vintage photos, you will see numerous examples of the green nylon suits and helmets in use by USN and USMC aviators in 1945 in the Pacific. The nylon helmets were companions to the "suit, flying, nylon, lightweight", made from the same green nylon material. The details of the AN-6542 were actually copied from the nylon helmets, with the elimination of the upper buckles for the MSA "D" oxygen masks found on the AN-6540 and the simplified chinstrap that was sewn in place on the wearer's left side and closed with a buckle on the right side. Thanks for the plug Jerry! If we're lucky, the web site will return one of these days.Īs for the helmet in question, if is a simplified version of the Navy's AN-6540 summer helmet which was made of khaki cotton Byrd cloth. There were actually two contracts for the AN-6542 that were issued AFTER these nylon examples went into production in October 1944, running through March 1945.
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