Types of WW2 Bomber Jackets Explained: A-2, G-1, B-3, and More

Wartime U.S. bomber jackets fall into three main leather types: the A-2, the G-1 lineage, and the heavy shearling B-3.

One vintage jacket listing says “WWII bomber jacket” and shows a short brown leather zip front; the next shows a shaggy fur-lined coat with a huge collar. Both labels can be honest, because the U.S. military never issued a single garment called a bomber jacket. It issued type numbers — A-2, AN-J-3, B-3 — each with its own specification, materials, and job. Knowing which is which is the difference between buying a piece of aviation history and buying a good jacket with a misleading name.

A-2: The Army Air Corps Leather Standard

The Type A-2 was the Army Air Corps’ lightweight waist-length leather flying jacket, adopted May 9, 1931, under specification 94-3040. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum describes it as the successor to the A-1, swapping the button front for a zipper and the knitted collar for a leather stand-and-fall collar.

Typical construction was a seal-brown leather shell, knitted wool cuffs and waistband, a front zipper, two flap pockets with concealed snaps, shoulder straps, and that leather collar. Horsehide was the original material; cowhide was authorized on July 17, 1940, and goatskin on March 10, 1941 — a detail worth knowing, since a wartime jacket in goatskin is still an issued jacket, just a later one.

The A-2 stopped being standard issue when the Army-Navy AN-J-3 replaced it on May 24, 1943, though replacement issue continued. The original specification was formally canceled on February 26, 1951. The Air Force revived the A-2 in 1987, with the first modern jackets delivered in May 1988 — but a modern issue A-2 is not automatically identical to a 1942 contract jacket.

G-1 Lineage: Navy Leather With Fur Collar

The G-1 name belongs to a Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard lineage that starts earlier than most people assume, with the M-422 specification dated March 28, 1940. That was followed by the AN-J-3/AN-J-3a, 55-J-14, and the MIL-J-7823 series; the current specification is MIL-DTL-7823F, effective June 2020.

Early M-422 construction used chocolate-brown chrome-tanned goatskin, a mouton-fur collar, a bi-swing back, rayon lining, and silk thread. The visible split from the A-2 is that fur-type collar and the Navy lineage behind it.

The name trap here is real: calling every wartime Navy leather jacket a G-1 is imprecise, because “G-1” is tied to the later specification lineage. Current specification language also permits broader approved materials, so don’t assume a modern G-1 is natural goatskin with natural fur until you check the label.

B-3 and the Types Often Mislabeled

The Type B-3 is a fundamentally different garment: a long, heavy shearling-lined winter flying coat issued May 8, 1934, for open-cockpit and high-altitude flying and closely tied to WWII bomber crews. The Smithsonian lists outer hides including horse, cow, and lamb skin, treated for resistance to water, gasoline, oil, and dirt, with shearling insulation through the body and sleeves and a tall neck.

Commercial sellers use “B-3 bomber jacket” freely for modern reproductions, and a reproduction’s hide, tanning, insulation, hardware, and pattern may not match an original contract garment. The same caution applies to the names around it:

• A-1: an earlier leather flying jacket with a buttoned front and knitted stand-up collar — a predecessor, not an A-2 variant.
• AN-J-3: the transitional Army-Navy family that replaced or supplemented the A-2 from 1943; it is not an A-2.
• B-10 and B-15: later cloth-insulated flight jackets, so not leather at all.
• MA-1: a postwar nylon family, not a WWII leather type.
• CWU-45/P: a later flame-resistant cloth jacket, never an A-2, G-1, or B-3.

If you’re weighing a modern reproduction against an original-design pattern, this roundup of tested WW2 bomber jackets covers the versions built on these wartime patterns. For period construction detail, the Smithsonian’s record of the A-2 flying jacket documents the collar, pocket, and hardware layout.

Telling a Wartime Jacket From a Lookalike

Appearance alone can’t establish wartime authenticity. Contract labels, specification numbers, manufacturer details, materials, stitching, hardware, and provenance are what separate an issued garment from a costume-grade copy — and “bomber jacket” was never an official universal military designation, so treat it as a shopping term, not a type name. Military issue and civilian reproduction are separate categories, and reproduction pricing varies too widely by maker to quote a single figure.