Does anyone know if Bates still do SD hats?
They still make hats and caps but a website search doesn't turn up RAF SD caps. The last time I spoke to them in the 1970s they had stopped making the old style and had kowtowed to Air Ministry and produced conventional ones.
ShyTorque mentions the bashing that SH pilot's hats got. Mine ended up tucked behind me in a Whirlwind for many hours in Borneo. The oil, heat and humidity were too much for it and on my last trip from the interior to Labuan I decided that retirement was the kindest thing to do. It was perched on top of a 200 ft. high tree somewhere about five miles northwest of Sepulot.