Resurrection of a Rare World War II Flight Jacket

Janice Christensen is remembered for her service during the war.

Like thousands of other American pilots in World War II, Janice Christensen received a government-issued flight jacket. Christensen was assigned to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, which gave civilian women the opportunity to serve their country by ferrying military airplanes throughout the United States. Christensen and the other WASPs wore A-2 jackets, which had leather exteriors lined in cotton. After the war, Christensen continued her aviation career by flying for the Civil Air Patrol and the U.S. Air Force Reserves. She also flew her own airplane, a single-engine Taylorcraft.

Christensen died in 1965, but the A-2 jacket stayed in her family. In 2019, they contacted the National Air and Space Museum to see about donating it. Dorothy Cochrane, who retired from the Museum last October after a long career as a curator in the aeronautics department, was immediately interested. While several companies offer good-quality reproductions of military flight jackets, originals from World War II are rare, and Cochrane was excited about acquiring an artifact that would be a perfect addition to the Museum’s new Jay I. Kislak World War II in the Air gallery, which will open in summer 2026. As could be expected, though, the Christensen jacket (manufactured some 80 years ago) was fragile.

Before Cochrane could accept the donation, she had to find out if the jacket could be saved. Enter Beth Knight, who works in the Museum’s conservation unit. Knight specializes in textiles, and she determined that the jacket could be stabilized and reinforced for public display.

Christensen’s niece, Rebecca Busby, had worn the jacket when she was a college student in the early 1970s as a way to honor her aunt’s service as a WASP. When Busby received the jacket, the knit-rib cuffs on the sleeves and waist were already frayed, so she blanket-stitched them to prevent further unraveling. “When discussing treatment options, Dorothy and I agreed that Rebecca’s repairs are an important part of the jacket’s history, even if they aren’t from its use in the 1940s,” says Knight. “I kept the repairs in place, used color-matched darning wool and duplicate stitches to stabilize the small holes and prevent them from becoming runs, and then followed Rebecca’s blanket stitch technique to further secure the worn cuff edges. The result is minimal intervention that stabilized the knit fabric and allows the jacket’s use-history to shine.”

Diane Tedeschi is Air & Space Quarterly’s senior editor.

This article, originally titled "Vintage Leather,"  is from the Winter 2026 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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