RAF Beards...?

[BEagle]

Indeed! It would be a very brave and utterly stupid person who dared to suggest to Les Képis Blancs that the aprons and beards aren't very military...

You Tube

Tiens, voilà du boudin, voilà du boudin, voilà du boudin

[Union Jack]

Originally Posted by parabellum

In the British Army the only person who would normally have a beard on parade would be the Pioneer Sergeant, complete with butchers leather apron and highly polished axe.

..... together with pipe majors in Scottish regiments, as well as some drum majors and personal pipers, and of course those allowed to wear a set for religious reasons.

Jack (aka Jock)

[Tankertrashnav]

Former kipper fleet members may remember a Welsh Nimrod captain who sported a very impressive beard. I only got got to know him after he retired but I remember passing him in the street in uniform once when he was still serving and doing a quick double take as it looked so bizarre.

Sword belt and tie apart, I think The Duke of Kent looks pretty good with the beard. Strong family resemblance to the Czar (Nicholas II, not Putin!)

[parabellum]

..... together with pipe majors in Scottish regiments, as well as some drum majors and personal pipers

Yes Jock, I forgot about them!

[4Greens]

Beards may interfere with the use of an oxygen mask.

[BEagle]

4Greens, I've often heard that - but it didn't seem to be an issue for a certain well-known naval Sea Harrier pilot...

[Tengah Type]

4Greens
Did not appear to be a problem for the Luftwaffe F104 pilots in the 60's. They could often be seen with beards similar to the "Greybeard" legionnaire on the March Past clip.
Coupled with waist length hair and an orange coloured flying suit, they seemed quite exotic creatures to us RAF types in our blue flying suits and "short back and sides" haircuts.

[Bob Viking]

4 Greens

Thats just not true I’m afraid. Trust me.

BV

[beardy]

Originally Posted by Bob Viking

Thats just not true I’m afraid. Trust me.

BV

Well the US Navy and the FAA among others think it is true
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...cumentID/22765

[tescoapp]

Its nothing to do with o2 leaks that they ban facial hair with O2 masks. Although if you have hydrocarbons on your clothes it can flash combust them.

Its all to do with partial pressure of O2 required to flash burn the rotten food and other deposits in said facial hair.

Suggest you soak some horse hair in bacon grease/dripping and then blow 100% oxygen over it. And see what happens.

Oxygen also has a habit of burning up the flow and can and does set the regulator on fire as well. So you can end up with a burning lump of aluminium and you breathing the fumes in the mask.

I suppose you could say you could have a beard but enforce a degreasing wash of the facial hair before flight.

Didn't one of the Apollo crews get cooked alive in a pure o2 fire while doing preflight checks?

[pamac51]

No Shaving Chit

I seem to recall that a permanent 'no shaving chit' had to be signed off by a 1* Medical Officer.

[Old-Duffer]

If male personnel are allowed beards because it would be religious discrimination not to allow them, then it will be sexual discrimination if females weren't allowed beards.

[teeteringhead]

Good point O-D; as WRNS are now all RN, perhaps it is already so with them?

[Bob Viking]

I have no links to prove otherwise but I can only speak from personal experience I’m afraid.

That is that I, and many of my colleagues, fly with an Oxygen mask and a beard on a daily basis. I have yet to experience spontaneous combustion or hypoxia as a result.

I will I’ll ask around work this week and see if anyone has experienced a burning face or death from hypoxia and get back to you.

BV

[NRU74]

Originally Posted by pamac51

I seem to recall that a permanent 'no shaving chit' had to be signed off by a 1* Medical Officer.

Not in the mid 1960’s.
A Flt Lt Medical Officer gave the authority. No chit issued/carried. New F1250 obtained. Anyone querying it politely asked to ring Sick Quarters and check.(Not sure how such disclosure of medical history would work now, or later this month when the GDPR come into force)
Not a problem using an oxygen mask either.

[Pontius Navigator]

Jock ATC at Lossie, retired, became OC Tain. Beard both before and after retirement.

The other trick though was no-shave chit before going on leave. On return with a full set you could not shave until inspected by MO and given clean bill of health

[cptkris]

That AC was issued in 87 and is based on research from the 60s and 70s if you check the sources. It also doesn’t specify the amount of hair in the tests but since it makes mention that “demand type masks many times cannot he donned rapidly...” it reads to me that it was fairly substantial amounts of hair present.

anyone know of more current research, or accidents relating to this directly? My face is cold...

[Mogwi]

Still got a mine - in an OHMS envelope, together with other memorabilia from '82. Must be worth a fortune by now! Can't remember suffering from spontaneous combustion or hypoxia. Mind you, it was never THAT good.

[BEagle]

Tengah Type, I must admit that I find the idea of a ZZ Top look alike climbing out of an F-104G in front of RAF slug-balancers quite hilarious....

(Good TBs at the Rose and Crown last Thursday!)

[jindabyne]

Taken at Honington in 1977. Skin infection, medically authorised, no chit. Allowed to fly unhindered. Then Boss not happy! Do not resemble that profile nowadays