Every couple of years somebody announces that the bomber jacket is finished. Then October turns up, the wind comes off the Wolds, and half of Driffield is back in nylon. The MA-1 has outlasted about seventy years of that cycle for one reason. The design was finished before anybody tried to make it fashionable.
It started as kit for men strapped into a cramped cockpit at altitude, and nearly every feature you like about it exists for a reason that has nothing to do with a Saturday night. We have sold MA-1 bombers for a very long time and we see more wrong sizes come back in returns on this jacket than on anything else we stock.
The Specification That Retired the B-15
The B-15 came first, in 1944. Cotton sateen shell, mouton fur collar, and it did the job perfectly well for propeller aircraft flying at moderate altitude. Jets ruined it. Cockpits shrank, ejection seats arrived, and pilots found themselves fighting a bulky fur collar every time they turned their head or fastened their parachute straps. The United States Air Force answered with the MA-1, built to military specification MIL-J-8279, which went through a run of revisions from the early 1950s onwards. The 1958 B revision was a minor one and gets quoted far more often than it deserves. The shape we still sell arrived with the D revision of December 1963.
Alpha Industries was founded in 1959, won its first MA-1 contract in 1963 and then made the thing in enormous numbers. That matters more than it sounds. A military contract produces a standardised pattern rather than a seasonal idea, so nobody ever redrew the MA-1 to suit a trend. They redrew it to suit a cockpit.
Why the Fur Collar Went
Fur photographs beautifully on a bomber crew standing in front of a Fortress. In a jet it was a liability. It snagged on the parachute straps, it soaked up moisture and then froze solid at altitude, and it stopped a pilot turning his head quickly enough to check behind him. The MA-1 swapped it for a flat knitted rib collar, 100 percent wool in shade 1525 on the military originals, with the same knit at the cuffs and the hem, so the jacket sealed at four points without adding bulk anywhere on the body.
If what you actually want is a fold down collar with a button tab at the throat, you are describing a Harrington, which is a different jacket doing a different job. Plenty of people call both of them a bomber. They are wrong, and the difference matters, because the two sit completely differently across the shoulder.
Sage Green and the Orange Lining
The shell is nylon, normally with a polyester wadding quilted into the lining, which is why an MA-1 packs down to nothing and dries in about an hour on a radiator. It was sage green, shade 1509, from the outset, and it stayed sage green for the whole of its service life. Midnight blue belongs to the B-15 and the B-15C Mod that came before it, which is where most of the confusion starts. The Air Force never issued a navy MA-1 and never issued a camouflage one. Every navy, black, burgundy and camo bomber you have seen came from a manufacturer selling to civilians, which is a better story than the one people usually tell.
The orange lining is the part everyone gets wrong. It was a rescue panel. A downed pilot turned the jacket inside out and used blaze orange against snow or scrub so a search aircraft could pick him out from the air. It was never a styling option. The habit of wearing an MA-1 orange side out started as a joke somewhere around the mid 1980s and then hardened into a look we have never had any time for. Wear it green side out. The orange is a lining.
From the Surplus Bin to the Football Terrace
Britain got the MA-1 through army surplus, and there was a great deal of it about. Fire resistant Nomex took over for American aircrew from around 1972 in the shape of the CWU-45/P, the MA-1 dropped down to ground crew, and the surplus channel filled up accordingly. By the late 1970s stores in most northern towns had racks of them at a price that undercut anything on the high street, and the skinhead revival of 1979 took to them straight away. Warm, short enough to sit above a pair of braces, and with nothing hanging off them for anyone to grab hold of in a crowd. The casuals adopted it through the early 1980s for much the same practical reasons before drifting off towards European sportswear.
It keeps coming back because it never really left. Anyone shopping the skinhead side of the wardrobe owns one already, and probably owns the one they bought fifteen years ago, because nylon does not wear out in any way you would notice.
| Jacket | Shell | Collar | Where the hem lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| MA-1 | Nylon with polyester wadding | Knitted rib, no fur | Top of the hip bone |
| B-15 | Cotton sateen, later nylon | Mouton fur | Top of the hip bone |
| Harrington G9 | Cotton and polyester poplin | Fold down with a button tab | Natural waist |
| Varsity | Melton wool body, leather sleeves | Knitted rib | Just below the waist |
Sizing, and That Short Body
The MA-1 is cut short and wide, and that is deliberate. A pilot sitting down does not want fabric bunching under a lap belt, so the body finishes at the top of the hip bone and the sleeves are cut slightly long with the rib cuff taking up the slack. Put one on for the first time and your instinct will tell you it is too short. Ignore your instinct.
- Measure a jacket you already like flat across the chest, armpit to armpit, and compare that number rather than trusting the letter on the label.
- The rib hem should sit on top of your hip bone. If it lands at your natural waist you have gone a size too big.
- The cuff rib should finish at the wrist bone with your arm hanging straight. It will ride up when you raise your arm, which is correct and always has been.
- Go up a size only if you plan to layer it over a hooded top or a heavy knit. Do not go up a size for a shirt.
Chest and sleeve figures for every brand we carry sit on our size guide, and they are worth two minutes before you order. Cut varies more between makers than the label admits, so if you want the proper boxy military shape instead of a slim modern one, check the flat chest measurement on each MA-1 listing before you decide.
What Goes Underneath
Straight leg jeans and a plain t shirt is the honest answer and nobody has improved on it in forty years. A pair of monkey boots underneath keeps the proportions right, because a short body needs some visual weight at the bottom or you end up looking top heavy.
We would also run one over Sta Press in stone or burgundy, which is cleaner and reads more suedehead than skin. What we would not do is wear it over a suit. The rib hem cuts a suit jacket straight across the middle and the whole line collapses. Save the tailoring for a mac and keep the MA-1 for jeans, trousers and cold Tuesday nights.
MA-1 FAQ
Five MA-1 questions that reach our inbox in a normal week.
- Should I size up in an MA-1 bomber jacket? Only if you intend to wear a hoodie or a thick knit underneath it. The jacket is designed to sit close and short, and going up a size drops the rib hem to your waist, which is where the shape stops working. Check your chest measurement against our size guide before you decide.
- Is the MA-1 meant to be worn with the orange lining showing? No. The orange panel was a rescue signal for a pilot on the ground trying to be spotted from the air. Wearing it reversed is a fashion habit from the 1980s and we would leave it alone.
- What is the difference between an MA-1 and a B-15? The B-15 dates from 1944 and carries a mouton fur collar on a cotton sateen shell. The MA-1 dropped the fur for a knitted rib collar and moved to a nylon shell, because fur was a problem in a jet cockpit. Otherwise the body length and the general cut are close cousins.
- Is an MA-1 warm enough for a British winter? For most of it, yes. The quilted polyester wadding traps a surprising amount of heat for the weight and nylon blocks wind completely. It is not a coat for standing still outdoors for hours, so add a knit underneath if you are watching a match in January.
- Can you wash a nylon bomber jacket? Cold machine wash on a gentle cycle, zipped up, with no fabric conditioner. Hang it to dry away from direct heat, because a hot radiator will glaze the nylon and you cannot undo that. Never tumble dry one.