Today we are looking at a pair of trousers that have been modified for use by aircrew. Whilst standard aircrew clothing was most typically used, on operations there was more latitude in clothing and some aircrew preferred separate shirts and trousers to the more usual all in one flight suit. Today we have a pair of lightweight DPM trousers:

These have been modified by the addition of an extra pocket on the right thigh:

This pocket has a large top flap secured with Velcro, that opens downwards:

The reason for this opening downwards is that the pocket is designed to hold an emergency line cutter and the user is likely to be sitting down when they need to access it so it is easier for the flap to pull away from the body than towards it. The cutter itself has a shrouded blade for cutting lines:

The loop at the end attaches to a matching loop in the pocket to ensure that the cutter cannot be lost, even if dropped and an internal piece of plastic ensures that the pocket isn’t damaged when putting the cutter in and out of it:

A white label is sewn under the flap of the pocket and has the typical 22C stores code used by the RAF for flight equipment:

The cutter was introduced into service in 1998 so we can surmise that these trousers were modified after that date and it is possible that the original owner of the trousers used them during the SFOR mission to Bosnia at the turn of the millennia.