Called "protective" for a reason, this cloth. By 'eck does it protect. Rain beads up and bounces off; wind shall not pass. But, also, it was developed with heat-transfer and breathability in mind. By trapping air and wicking away moisture, it is a high-performance shell on cold days, or on hot and sticky ones, alike.
The flight jacket is a short jacket, with side-entry pockets all but invisible to the casual observer, and a hem band which pulls the body into a bomber jacket-style sort of shape. It has no collar of which to speak, but rather a collar-stand, which skims smoothly around the neck, never slack nor tight.
The jacket has a throat-latch, which runs across the neck at the front. It may be buttoned across or back on itself. This is, of course, entirely up the wearer. They may choose, even, not to button the throat-latch at all — just to have it hang loose.
It has a front of six buttons — all horn, dark tortoiseshell in colour, and pleasingly tactile in nature. And, for each of those, there is a little backing button on the other side. These protect the stitching of the front buttons, and perform a minor anchoring job as well.
The jacket has side-entry pockets, which are tucked out of sight in the side-seams of the body. The aforementioned seams are pitched forwards, so the pockets are in just the right place to plunge hands a moment's notice. Also visible here at the pleats that taper the body of the jacket into the hem.
The sleeves are a standard sort of width, but they taper at the elbow and fasten snugly around the wrist with a cuff that folds in on itself, courtesy of a gusset, some pleats, and an arrow-tipped tab.
The jacket has a saddle shoulder. This type of construction combines the sharp lines of a typical inset sleeve with a very soft drape over the shoulder. It is more commonly seen on knitwear; nobody can recall ever seeing it on a cut-and-sewn jacket. One to file in the "simple to look at but devilish to make" box.
The jacket has two pockets on the inside — one, as you might predict, on each side. They are disproportionately large compared to the rest of the jacket, and being as they are each covered with a large flap, they invite the storage of belongings, so freeing up the exterior pockets for hands and hands only.
The jacket has a half-lining of even more protective ripstop. In this way, when also taking into account the facing on the inside-front of the jacket, you have a double-layer of cloth on the most weather-exposed parts of the exterior. Elsewhere, meanwhile, the seams are smartly bound with dark grey cotton.
The front of the cloth is a ripstop weave of aramid fibres; the back is a raised ripstop of more aramid fibres. Weapon-grade strength. And yet the cloth is soft and tactile, doesn't much age, and is supremely hardy vis à vis abrasion. Great for travel, too: light and resistant to creasing.
