Generations of Blue Angels and Thunderbirds owe their ability to stroll airshow ramps in smart, sexy flight suits to a wealthy, irascible Australian World War I pilot named Sidney Cotton. For Sid Cotton invented the flight suit in 1917. He named it the Sidcot, and it soon became standard for British Royal Flying Corps and Naval Air Service pilots. It’s said that “Red Baron” Manfred von Richthofen was wearing a Sidcot when he was shot down, though there’s no word on whether he bought it or copped it from a Brit victim.
Cotton’s flight suit was quite different than the modern-day military pilot’s tight
