Russian WWII Pilot's flying helmet?

[thefight]

Hi,

I am looking at a pilots skull cap that I believe is from WWII. This is the first pilots cap I have looked at to buy and I don't know much anything about them. Does this look like the WWII era and what type of pilots cap would this have been? Has the numbers WNO-78 PA3MEP 198. Also what would a fair price for this be?

Thanks

Alec

[Adrian Stevenson]

Not a WW2 era helmet. It is the ShL-78 summer version. You are reading the label with eyes used to the Western alphabet. What you are seeing as "WNO" is ShL in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Please see here for more detailed info:

ZSh

No idea on value, sorry.

Cheers, Ade.

[thefight]

Thank you Ade, I would have never figured that out.

Alec

[willie45]

This post is fairly old, but I might be able to add a couple of comments on the helmet ID.

The tag reads ШЛO-78, PA3MEP..., 198...
It's an ShLO-78. ShL is the designation for the summer helmet, ShLO is the light summer or tropical helmet designation.
They came in four variants, the ShL (summer), ShLO (light summer), ShZ (winter) and ShZB (light winter).

Ш = Sh (short for 'Shlemofon' - English:headset, Russian:ШЛемoфoны ) and Л = L ( 'Letniye' English:summer, Russian:Летние). Thus ShL (ШЛ) is the acronym for ШЛемoфoны Летние ( 'Shlemofoni Letniye' or 'Headset/Summer' ).
The same goes for the winter helmet. ShZ (ШЛЗ) stands for 'Shlemofoni Zimniye' ( Zimniye = зимний, winter).

78 signifies the year of introduction of that series. 'PA3MEP' is Russian for size (in centimeters), which is usually stamped in ink or hand written in biro after the word PA3MEP. The 198 means the year of actual manufacture. Often the complete date is printed (1980,1982 etc.) and others like this one have the first three numbers only, with the fourth number put on with an ink stamp or hand written in biro.

There's a few other tricks with the tags. Even though the ShL-82 was introduced in 1982, production of the ShL-78 didn't cease in that year. I've got a couple of ShL-78's dated post 1982. The 78's and 82's are externally identical, so the reason for the new designation is still a bit of a mystery to me. I read once that it was an internal electronics upgrade, but haven't seen any hard proof of that as yet. It makes sense, though.

Another one is the inverted V on some of the ShL-82's. Tags can have the more regular prefix of ШЛ-82 (ShL-82) or can be printed as ШΛ-82. The inverted V is the hand written form of the printed 'Л' (L), but in these cases it is printed. That's why you see people from one particular country advertising them as a WA-82.

If I had a beer for every time I've seen people advertising a 'WA-82' or a 'PA3MEP' on eBay, I'd be as drunk as a lord for ar least a week.

Cheers, Willie.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Never worry about brining up an old thread.

Nice info.

Thanks Willie.

Cheers, Ade.