G-1 military flight jacket

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The "G-1" military flight jacket is the commonly accepted name for the fur-lined collar World War II United States Army Air Corps/Navy flight jacket, also currently in use by the U.S. Coast Guard, and is most popularly known as the jacket worn by Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun.

More technically, the "G-1" may be considered the U.S. Military flight jacket developed in 1947 and used in the Korean War since the term "G-1" was not used as a label for this fur-collared military-issued jacket until after World War II. However, the term "G-1" has come to be used for this model going back to its inception in the 30s. Technically, prior to the end of World War II, and starting in 1940 when it was officially named by the Navy, the "G-1" had the military spec number of M-422A.

This jacket was brought to use by the U.S. Navy in the 1930s, and standardized by the Navy in 1940 as the M-422A. In 1943 this jacket, also named by the Army Air Corps and Navy as the ANJ-3 (Army Navy Jacket 3) replaced the iconic A-2, the most famous of U.S. Military jackets, hence the name of ANJ-3 (vs. A-2). The M-422A replacement of the loved and famous A-2 was, however, in the form of a non-fur-collared version of the "G-1", or M-422A, currently referred to for obvious reasons as the G-2.

The G-2 is arguably more properly termed the ANJ-3 since the "G-1" is the term used most to refer to the fur-collared model, and hence ANJ-3 is basically what the leather (non-fur-lined collar) version is called. This is because the non-fur version was the one chosen by the Army Air Corps and Navy to replace the A-2 in 1943, not the fur model. Ironically though, the G-2 or ANJ-3 was never actually issued to military personnel. This was because of the scarcity of leather and the lower cost of nylon, a nylon jacket was actually used rather than the ANJ-3, or G-2, to replace the famed A-2.

The fur lining the collar of the historic G-1 is mouton. Modern government-issue jackets have a collar lined with artificial nylon "fur."