Modern clothing are made of mostly man made fabrics or combination natural/synthetic fabrics which has opened up fabulous markets and trends in the garment industry.

Poly-cottons, nylons, poly-viscose just to name a few are great for looks, wash and dry easily, hang nicely and are comparatively stronger than natural fibres. Unfortunately these fabrics have one serious draw back ie. the high speed of combustion in the event of a contact with fire.

As a result the garment melts on the body, forming an airtight barrier on the accident victim, similar to “shrink wrap”. This leads to skin suffocation and subsequent death. There are many cases of pilots having met their maker through the unfortunate fact that they were dressed with this type of clothing. Undoubtedly a large proportion of them would have walked away  virtually unharmed, had they been wearing the correct kind of garment.

Since aviation is still using petroleum based fuels for propulsion with it’s inherent dangers, it makes sense to avoid wearing any combustion supporting fabrics whilst in and around aircraft.

As a minimum protection with a closed cockpit, avgas or jet fuel driven aircraft/helicopter, we recommend to wear a suit made in 100% cotton. The best protection is a fire resistant Kermel’ or Nomex’ suit. With the correct fabric weight, a suit of this type will give excellent protection in the event of a flash fire or to a person having to run through a fire.

Over the years, we at Airwear’, have found that a 230gr/m’ (~7 oz) is the most effective fabric thickness to use. It offers very good fire protection, retains a reasonable amount of body heat in winter and is very acceptable in summer.

Asides the protection issue, all Airwear’ suits are tailormade therefore comfortable to wear, last for years and are cost effective.

We supply thermal suits and poly cotton suits only to the microlight (weight shift) and parachute fraternity, respectively. The fire risks in these two sports are minimal and do not warrant specific fire protection. Medical rescue can use either poly-cotton or pure cotton suits as per customer request.

Our web-site gives all relevant information as to technical data, cost, how to measure for a proper fit and much more.

Anyone requiring more detailed information is welcome to contact us via e-mail, phone or fax. 

“If you value your skin, protect it, it’s the only one you have”

As a final word:  We know of two local accidents in the past few years, where pilots were wearing our suit and managed to get away with minor or no injury. Need we say more.