Foreword

Actually, I did not plan to write a story about the whole aviation uniform lineup and hoped to get away by limiting the scope just to the evolution of the flight helmets. I thought it would be a light project, because I only had 35 years of history to talk about since the first flight. However, in reading all the documents in the archives, I discovered that there was really no development story to tell about flight helmets, because they were fairly no-brainer items to the Army.

Instead what obsessed the Army all those years was the trauma of freezing in the Siberian winters of 1920-1922– freezing so severe that pilots would pass out immediately upon landing after a 1 hour flight. Against such cold, the army could only wrap more heavy clothing around the pilots until they could barely walk.

Electrically Heated Suits existed as an idea, but no country had a viable solution at that time, as they had been too busy with the War.

Heated suits were a pilot’s dream, not only a means to put Siberian nightmares to rest, but a critical item for aviation’s future, because aviation in the 1920s was starting to conquer lofty heights, and you could be reunited with the Siberian cold anywhere in the world just by going up there in the blue yonder.

After reading it all, it appeared to me that the Army consumed about 80% of its energy on developing an ultimate heated suit, and showed remarkable tenacity in pursuing that goal single-mindedly. This was a story that just couldn’t be ignored, but once I went that far, there was no more sense in limiting the scope of the story.

As in all my stories, there will be many new discoveries for you, which are being published for the first time in postwar history, so bear with me in moments I start to bore you with too much about heated wear, as it is not my passion that makes me dwell on the subject, but it was the Zeitgeist of those exciting days when there seemed to be no boundaries to where men could go, a kind of elation that must have been similar to how we all felt in 1969.

Once again, I tried to make it a story of men instead of items, and I hope you will enjoy the result.

1910, The Baron vs The Man with the “Blow-forward” Gun

Harajuku in Tokyo has long been a vibrant centre of youth culture in Japan. Not only is it where the young go for the latest in fashion, but at the same time, it is also an inviting oasis for couples and families, because there is a big park there, situated in the middle of skyscrapers, like Central Park in New York. The northern part of that great expanse of green is the Meiji Shrine and its forest, and the southern part is the open grass of Yoyogi Park.

This Yoyogi Park was where Japan’s historical first plane flight once took place. At the southwestern edge of this park, close to the South gate stands a “First flight Monument” as proof of that deed, accompanied by bronze busts of two men, who became Japan’s aviation heroes that day long ago. Click here for a 360 degree view of this spot in the park.

Back in 1909, the area was newly designated a training ground for the Army, and there the two men tried out their new planes in December of 1910. One was a 26-year old Army Engineer, Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa 徳川好敏 (1884-1963). He was actually from a branch of the family of former Shoguns, and despite having lost status as the ruling family of Japan, his father still managed to be a Baron. But not for long, as the decline in family fortunes eventually forced the Baron to give up his title of peerage, citing financial difficulties that kept the family from being able to afford a standard of living befitting an aristocratic title.

The other man was a 32 year old Infantry Captain, Kumazo Hino 日野熊蔵 (1878-1946), who at that time already had certain fame as an inventor genius. Back in 1903, the then 25-year old Hino had invented a really awkward automatic pistol.