Safety belts for pilots in WW1

[Becker02]

Hallo all,

Does anybody know the development of safety belts for pilots in WW1? 

How long have they had no belts? When were there the first belly-belts? And when with shoulder-belts?

Thanks and Greetings!

[Trotski]

lap belts were in use from pre war, , the germans I believe were the first to have a full 4 point harness, the certainly had them on Albatros DVI, even some eindeckers had them fitted too, However the French may have been the first to have a full 4 point system. But I am not 100% sure on that, as it is a question that has never crossed my mind to be honest, an interesting one though .

[epower]

In 1917, Oliver Manners Sutton of No 54 Sqn. RFC invented the Harness which bears his name and became standard issue for the next 30+ years.  Annoyingly, Sutton Harness does not have a Wikipedia page but if you google it you'll see numerous sites which detail the construction.

The three key features being

1. shoulder and hip belts
2. The single D pin release
3. a single rear attach point allowing side to side movement by the pilot

 

There's one at this link.  It's the WW2 variant but the design didn't change much between the wars.

https://www.historicflyingclothing.com/en-GB/raf-aircraft-parts/raf-aircraft-sutton-harness/prod_10252

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by epower

[TROOPER117]

Ah, the Sutton harness... used to wear one in my Spit old boy!  (hic!)

[Becker02]

Thanks for info @trotski, @epower!

You can see at this link a movie with a pilot (MvR), when he got into the DR.1. And you can see the shoulder-belts (3.08 - 3.25): almost OT - SimHQ Forums.

Maybe other members have further informations.

 

Greetings!

Edited May 14, 2021 by Becker04