thanks phil ,they really do display well and the design does look reminicent of the ww2 types shown here so far
thanks for looking mate
thanks for looking mate
phil it also came with the hard top shell ,im just waiting on a pair of OP-1M flight goggles to complete the look
WOW Mate!! You picked up a couple of Beauties there James Well done and in pristine condition too. Thanks for sharing that and good to see Other collectors items .
Cheers
Greg
Hello James,
The throat mike/laryngophone is a La-5 designation (same as the WW2 fighter).
The mesh top light summer helmet is a ShLO-82 helmet. The added 'O' is for Oblyegchyonnie (lightweight). The '82' is the year of final development release. Sometimes there's a bit of an overlap, as helmets dated 1982 to 1985 were still tagged as '78 series. The first '82 designations came in in 1986.
There were different models - ShL prefix is summer, with a nylon cloth lining, ShLO is the same with the open mesh top, ShZ prefix is winter with doghair or lambswool lining and ShZB is a less common light winter helmet with a blue flannel lining.
It's hard to tell from the photos what the lining is, but at that date, it could be either. Dog hair has a similar profile to human hair, whereas wool has a definite crimped profile. It's almost visible to the naked eye. If you pull a hair from the lining and look under a magnifying glass you might be able to see if it's wool. You could compare the one from the helmet to a human or dog hair under the magnifying glass and that could give an indication.
The webbing strap from the main supply hose of the KM-32 mask is an anti-flail strap for ejection purposes and is secured to the parachute harness.
The smaller rubber hose running full length with the main corrugated hose is the mask's pressure compensating hose. The bayonet fitting on the end of this connects to the pilot's overpressure regulator, along with the main supply hose. This regulator is attached to the pilot and remains with him during ejection. When breathing in, the pressure demand regulator supplies air through both hoses. The small hose supplies air to the mask's expiry valve at the front of the mask. It inflates a small balloon which blocks off the expiry flap valve. This prevents loss of incoming mask oxygen to the expiry valve when breathing in.
The other small rubber hose and bayonet fitting extending from the left side of the mask is another pressure compensating feature. It connects to a hose supplying air to an occipital bladder. This bladder seems to be the only piece of your kit missing.
Pressure compensating bladder.
At the bottom rear of the helmet, there's two press studs closing off an internal pouch in the helmet. When these are opened up, there are four studs inside which correspond to the four on the bladder. The bladder clips inside the pouch with the hose exiting on the helmet's left side. It locates through a small leather loop on the left hand base of the helmet pouch.
On this helmet of mine, you can see the mask tensioning hose connected to the bladder's hose leading to the rear pouch.
This is a mask tensioning device. If you have a high oxygen demand, eg: during a high G turn, the pressure demand regulator will supply a higher pressure and volume of oxygen. This can leak out the perimeter of the mask, defeating the purpose of trying to supply the pilot with more oxygen. To counteract this, excess pressure is released through the small hose on the side of the mask. This pressure inflates the occipital bladder and has the effect of pulling the helmet rearwards on the pilots head. As the mask is attached to the helmet, it tightens the mask/face seal. As soon as the pressure drops again, the bladder deflates. The Russians had this system in 1957. The Brits experimented with it as well, and the U.S. finally adopted it in recent years as part of the Combat Edge system.
The Russian bladders are a bit hard to find on their own. The Chinese versions on eBay are the same, except the press studs are reversed and don't clip into place on a Russian helmet. But they stay in the pouch ok for display purposes. Everything else is the same, except for those studs.
James, if you need to track down a bladder, send me a pm. I know a bloke in Moscow who might have some unissued KM-32 masks and they're normally issued with the bladder. He wold normally sell the mask and bladder possibly cheaper than trying to track down a solo bladder.
Cheers, Willie.
Very nice ZSh-3M helmet, James. And named as well; pilot's name looks like ' Katsalap'.
Forgot to mention previously - the way you have the mask's occipital bladder supply hose connected to the expiry valve supply line which is normally connected to the regulator.
That connection is used to pressure test the mask when pressure equipment is not available. The pilot will don and adjust the mask for best fit. With the hoses connected as you have, the pilot takes a deep breath and expires. Excess air goes via the small mask tube, not to the bladder, but to the balloon in the expiry valve. With the expiry valve blocked, the mask will pressurize and any leaks are detected. I guess it's why they designed it with compatible fittings.
Cheers, Willie.
many thanks greg and also for letting me share with you here on your superb threadby Studly
cheers james
Willie what can i say but a huge thanks again for all your helpHello James,
The throat mike/laryngophone is a La-5 designation (same as the WW2 fighter).
The mesh top light summer helmet is a ShLO-82 helmet. The added 'O' is for Oblyegchyonnie (lightweight). The '82' is the year of final development release. Sometimes there's a bit of an overlap, as helmets dated 1982 to 1985 were still tagged as '78 series. The first '82 designations came in in 1986.
There were different models - ShL prefix is summer, with a nylon cloth lining, ShLO is the same with the open mesh top, ShZ prefix is winter with doghair or lambswool lining and ShZB is a less common light winter helmet with a blue flannel lining.
It's hard to tell from the photos what the lining is, but at that date, it could be either. Dog hair has a similar profile to human hair, whereas wool has a definite crimped profile. It's almost visible to the naked eye. If you pull a hair from the lining and look under a magnifying glass you might be able to see if it's wool. You could compare the one from the helmet to a human or dog hair under the magnifying glass and that could give an indication.
The webbing strap from the main supply hose of the KM-32 mask is an anti-flail strap for ejection purposes and is secured to the parachute harness.
The smaller rubber hose running full length with the main corrugated hose is the mask's pressure compensating hose. The bayonet fitting on the end of this connects to the pilot's overpressure regulator, along with the main supply hose. This regulator is attached to the pilot and remains with him during ejection. When breathing in, the pressure demand regulator supplies air through both hoses. The small hose supplies air to the mask's expiry valve at the front of the mask. It inflates a small balloon which blocks off the expiry flap valve. This prevents loss of incoming mask oxygen to the expiry valve when breathing in.
The other small rubber hose and bayonet fitting extending from the left side of the mask is another pressure compensating feature. It connects to a hose supplying air to an occipital bladder. This bladder seems to be the only piece of your kit missing.
Pressure compensating bladder.
At the bottom rear of the helmet, there's two press studs closing off an internal pouch in the helmet. When these are opened up, there are four studs inside which correspond to the four on the bladder. The bladder clips inside the pouch with the hose exiting on the helmet's left side. It locates through a small leather loop on the left hand base of the helmet pouch.
On this helmet of mine, you can see the mask tensioning hose connected to the bladder's hose leading to the rear pouch.
This is a mask tensioning device. If you have a high oxygen demand, eg: during a high G turn, the pressure demand regulator will supply a higher pressure and volume of oxygen. This can leak out the perimeter of the mask, defeating the purpose of trying to supply the pilot with more oxygen. To counteract this, excess pressure is released through the small hose on the side of the mask. This pressure inflates the occipital bladder and has the effect of pulling the helmet rearwards on the pilots head. As the mask is attached to the helmet, it tightens the mask/face seal. As soon as the pressure drops again, the bladder deflates. The Russians had this system in 1957. The Brits experimented with it as well, and the U.S. finally adopted it in recent years as part of the Combat Edge system.
The Russian bladders are a bit hard to find on their own. The Chinese versions on eBay are the same, except the press studs are reversed and don't clip into place on a Russian helmet. But they stay in the pouch ok for display purposes. Everything else is the same, except for those studs.
James, if you need to track down a bladder, send me a pm. I know a bloke in Moscow who might have some unissued KM-32 masks and they're normally issued with the bladder. He wold normally sell the mask and bladder possibly cheaper than trying to track down a solo bladder.
Cheers, Willie.and the hose strap again was a bit of a guess to where its fixing point should be ,so i have one more part to add ,the bladder
i noticed the rear opening but just thought it gave access to the ear cup wiring
thanks for the help on tracking one down ,as soon as my bank balance permits ill give you a shout
thanks james
Thanks willie for the hard top designation
all the best and cheers ,james
Yes, James, it was quite common for issued ZSh-3's to have the pilot's name written inside. Ocasionally it was written on the outside, but far more common on the inside. The later fibreglass models, the ZSh-5 and ZSh-7 had very little room inside for a name, so they were mainly written on the outside, in red lettering at the rear lower neck region. The soft pad locks into the hard shell to stop movement, as you suggested.
Most of the later La-5 throat mikes are white, older ones seem to be mainly black, but the Russians didn't seem to have brown like the Chinese.
Here's the armoured version I mentioned previously, the ZSh-3B. Main difference is the titanium covering over the normal duralimin hard shell and a different dual visor setup.
These are a bit hard to find. This one has a small crack in the tinted visor, but I can live with that.
Cheers, Willie.
Thanks again willie for the great info and for sharing your nice ZSh-3B example ,its all been a huge learning curve for me so thanks for your time and effort explaining
kind regards james
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks