Original German WWII Luftwaffe LKpN101 Netzkopfhaube Summer Flying Helmet in Size 58cm with Avionics Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The famous net-top helmet proved popular with Luftwaffe pilots as it was designed for comfort and without the restriction of a chinstrap. This classic mesh flying helmet which has become synonymous with Luftwaffe fighter pilots in WW2.

This example has a manufacturers label coded bxo indicating it was produced by the firm of Deutsche Telephonwerke und Kabelindustrie A.-G., Berlin SO 36 and the size given but hard to read but its a large size 58. Overall condition is very good to excellent. This example features dark leather receiver cups and provision for the Luftwaffe later variant with attachment points for 3-strap oxygen masks.

It still has the original manufacturers tag on the interior rear, which is faint.

FL. Kopfhaube Gr. 58
Baumuster LKp N101
Gerät – Nr 124
Werk – Nr  – I K Hsl
Anf. Z     Ln 26670
Hersteller
b x o

So the right there looks to be a Sep. 1942 date printed in red, with inspection information on the left.

The throat microphones are marked Mi4c and Ln 26779-3 meaning the avionics are comprised of oval Mi4c magnetic type throat microphones with four-pole break coupling/plug. The helmet carries the short communication cord favored by fighter pilots and is fitted with a plug that is nicely marked BLK v F 127560.

Comes more than ready for display.

Early First World War pilots in military aircraft soon discovered that appropriate protective flight goggles were a necessity, due to the cold, sun glare and the all too frequent occurrence of oil leaking into the slipstream and covering the pilot. Originally the German military was caught unprepared and no specific protective goggles for pilots were available, which resulted in the pilots utilizing commercially produced or captured enemy protective goggles. Early in the war, the Carl Zeiss optics firm of Jena developed specific protective flight goggles that became the standard pattern for other manufacturers. Further improvements and refinements of assorted protective flight goggles continued in the inter-war years and by the start of the Second World War, there were no fewer then nine types of protective flight goggles available and nine main manufacturers including, Carl Zeiss, Ernst Leitz, Philip M. Winter, O.W. Wagner, Nitsche & Günther, Knothe, Cellowaro, Bauer, Uvex and Auer.

The Luftwaffe was the aerial-warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht before and during World War II. Germany’s military air arms during World War I, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Imperial Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which banned Germany from having any air force.

During the interwar period, the German armed forces secretly trained pilots – in violation of the Treaty – at Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the NSDAP (in power from 1933) and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe’s existence was publicly acknowledged on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through the announcement of German rearmament and conscription on 16 March. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a valuable testing-ground for new tactics and aircraft. Partially as a result of this combat experience, the Luftwaffe had become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II broke out in 1939. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty.