Mister Ed
1961
Search results
Mar 9, 2018 · From the name of the American film actress Mae West, renowned for her generous bust, the informal noun ‘Mae West’, attested in 1940, denotes an inflatable life jacket, originally as issued to Royal Air Force aviators during World War II.
A personal flotation device (PFD; also referred to as a life jacket, life preserver, life belt, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, buoyancy aid or flotation suit) is a flotation device in the form of a vest or suit that is worn by a user to prevent the wearer from drowning in a body of water.
The USAAF Pneumatic Life Vest - affectionately dubbed the "MaeWest" vest (after the amply endowed film star) - was a pneumatic life vest that saved the lives of thousands of pilots during WWII. The yellow rubber vest inflated using CO2 cartridges, with a back-up manual inflation tube.
During that era, they acquired the name “Mae West jackets.” When a person puts one on and inflates it, he or she look like a buxom woman. In the 1940s, this reminded men of Mae West. Here’s how the life preserver came to be.
Second World War period RAF life jacket. A successor to the earlier 1932 pattern, the Life Jacket MkI was introduced in July 1941 and, with various modifications, remained in service for the remaining years of the Second World War.
Inflated by a carbon-dioxide cylinder, the 1941 pattern Mae West Life Preserver was made of yellow fabric, enabling the airman to be more easily detected and therefore rescued if he should bale out of his aircraft at sea.
Original Item: Only One Available. During World War II the U.S. aviators and the Royal Air Force servicemen had available to them a vital piece of American-made equipment for emergencies that had only been in use for a few years: an inflatable (Mae West) life preserver.
The 1941 Pattern 'Mae West' life jacket (officially known as the 'Waistcoat, life-saving, stole-inflated pattern') was introduced in July 1941 and was the first RAF jacket inflated by an internal carbon dioxide bottle, rather than manually by the wearer, as had previously been the case.
May 16, 2005 · An article from The Tulsa Daily World in 1936 tells how the life jacket Mr. Markus developed saved the lives of 98 of 100 men when the Navy dirigible Macon crashed in the Pacific in 1935.
Yellow Air Ministry 1941 pattern Mae West flap life waistcoat of yellow cotton twill, fitted with inflatable internal bladders in a stole pattern at the chest and neck. The lower right front of the waistcoat is fitted with a carbon dioxide cylinder with a chrome-plated actuating lever for instantaneous inflation.
