News | USAF Got New Football Helmets And You’re Gonna Love Em’

That’ll Turn Some Heads.

So maybe a new football helmet isn’t exactly the most exciting news, but when you see it, you’ll like it. Doing away with the traditional blue lighting bolt on the side, they’ve upgraded it to something more…aggressive.

Not only is the new graphic cool, it also has a lot of history behind it. For all you warbird lovers, you’ll love the fact that the image dates back to World War II.

The 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) also known as Flying Tigers, were the first ones on this side of the pond to put shark teeth on their planes. For those of you who don’t know it however, that idea was “borrowed” from the Germans.

Luftwaffe’s ZG 76 heavy fighter wing was the first to paint shark mouths on their planes. A heavy fighter wing, they painted the teeth on their Messerschmitt Bf 110s. Although there is some heated stipulation about the origins, this is the story that holds most true.

Today however, the tradition continues and the shark mouth was placed on one of the most crucial planes in USAF’s inventory. We are talking about the A-10 of course. Although the nose art makes these planes look extremely aggressive (and cool), we figure that it’s the 72 depleted uranium, 30×173 bullets coming at you per second that strikes fear into most of our enemies.