Original Item: Only One Available. This is an ultra rare example of a full pressure United States Navy high altitude Mark II Model I flight helmet with its original gold paint.

The helmet was manufactured in part by the B. F. Goodrich Company and the Firewel Company, Incorporated. The data plate on the left side of the helmet lists the helmet as part number GR-70 with serial number 96. Features a clear glass retractable visor in great fully functional condition. The helmet has some issues including missing the microphone and one headphone on the interior, with some of the material in the other leaking, but otherwise this is a fantastic example that still displays very well!

Offered in overall great condition, this is a very very hard to find helmet as it became an iconic look of 1960s and 1970s outer space movies and television shows. There were never many produced and after the Navy moved on to a different design, the ones which weren't scrapped, were sold off to film production companies and Hollywood costume houses. Finding one with original paint is therefore difficult due to them being repainted for use as a “space helmet” in movies.

The interior of the helmet has a full label on the dome padding, which reads:

449
SUIT FULL PRESSURE
HIGH ALTITUDE MK II MOD. I
UNIT: HEADPIECE SIZE: SMALL MEDIUM
STOCK NO. RL37GD - 5P2001 - 21 - SM
MFG’D BY THE B.F. GOODRICH CO.
CONTRACT NO. N156-33828
BUREAU OF AERONAUTICS
U.S. NAVY

The green fabric wrapped cord behind the helmet is in good shape with some light fraying and is still fully connected to the helmet. The paint on the exterior is in fair shape. This is a really phenomenal piece of American history, and will become a fantastic part of your display. Comes ready for further research and display.

The US NAVY MK-II or Mark II full pressure flight suit was an improvement of the MK-I with improved mobility as well as more comfort than the previous naval high altitude gear. The relevant helmet offered improved visibility and a new tiedown system to prevent the helmet from rising under pressure.

The high altitude helmets and relevant suits have been developed to protect the human body against the lack of pressure and extremes of temperature at high altitude. During the 30s the first experimental pressurized suit manufactured by B.F. Goodrich was worn by Wiley Post during an actual flight above 50,000 feet. Early prototypes of pressure suits have been developed and tested during the WWII but the full operative high altitude equipment was introduced in the US armed forces during the late 40s. Because the USAF was already developing partial pressure suits the USN was tasked with developing full pressure suit. After the first prototypes which were lacking in mobility, proper ventilation, comfort and helmet restricted vision. The MK series was successfully developed in four versions used by US NAVY flight crew from the middle 50s through the early 70s.

The Navy High Pressure Flight Helmet
By the early 1960s, the US Navy had progressed through a series of developmental models of the full pressure suit that would ultimately take final form in the Mark IV, Model 3, Type 1, a production suit which US Navy aircrew wore on high altitude flights during its cold weather operations.

Regardless of the success of the A/P22S-2 suit and its modifications in Air Force use, it remained part of the US Navy's cooperative program with the B. F. Goodrich Company, and pioneer suit designer Russell Colley, to solve some important problems concerning mobility and full pressurization. One of the most important developments was an aneroid suit controller that maintained suit internal pressurization at precisely 0.24 bar. The Mark series of US Navy full pressure suits which followed culminated in three models of the final Mark IV suit, which went into production in 1958 as standard high altitude issue for US Navy squadrons. The Mark IV, Model 3, Type 1 suit featured various enhancements in fit and ease of donning, as well as substantially improved pressurization control. It would go on to be selected as the basic foundation of NASA's early earth-orbital suit (the original Mercury prototype suits were specially reworked Mark IV suits).