Old RAF type leather helmet - adapting to ICOM type handheld?

[rwanttaja]

I dunno...using 60-70 year old receivers and staking your safety on them?

Don't know about "safety"; seems to me that few folks flying an open-cockpit plane really need any sort of electronic devices to ensure their safety.

Is there some way you could fit modern receivers into the earcup/receiver holders without destroying anything? And then replacing the old ones for display?

The problem is, it doesn't really eliminate the big drawback for flight use of this helmet: Noise attenuation. Modern headsets do a much better job at eliminating the engine and slipstream sounds. I found this when I converted an old Russian leather helmet for GA use...yes, the speakers were right by my ears but the background sounds weren't really reduced much.

I fixed that issue by wearing high-attenuation ear buds under the helmet, and not bothering with the in-helmet speakers at all. I'm using Plugfones in my Fly Baby right now...

https://www.plugfones.com/

They have ~25 dB of attenuation, about the same as a headset. You would need a simple impedance matcher to use them on a standard aircraft radio, but they're just fine on a handheld with 8-ohm output. They fit easily under the helmet.

Ron Wanttaja