History

On March 25, 1933 the DLV (Deutscher Luftsportverband = German Air Sports Association) was created as a civilian sports organisation, the umbrella organisation of all air-related sports. However, from the very beginning, the DLV was used to secretly train its members for future roles in the newly emerging Luftwaffe, a breach of the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
The organisation should not be confused with the Deutscher Luftfahrtverband (also abbreviated DLV), which was formed in 1902, but disbanded in favour of the new DLV under Third Reich rule.

The DLV was split into two groups, the civilian section and the secret military section, known as the “Fliegerschaft” (air crew). The organisation eventually became obsolete after the official unveiling of the Luftwaffe in 1935, and it was disbanded and replaced by the National Socialist Flyers Corps (NSFK or Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps) in 1937.

In the beginning, the DLV used the Visor Cap version originally used by the Deutsche Luftfahrt (DL). Initially, it was in “Teller”form, but this changed in 1934 to the “saddle” form. The cap is blue-grey, with a cap band of black mohair for most, except a blue-grey one for members of the gliding section.

All ranks had light blue piping initially, but later gold-coloured piping was introduced for the top two ranks and aluminum wire piping for Officers. The piping is located above the cap crown and above and below the cap band. Initially all ranks wore a black leather chin strap, but later gold-coloured ones for the top two ranks and aluminum wire ones for Officers were introduced.

A new version was introduced in October of 1935. It is very similar in design to the earlier version. Visor and chin strap are black. Officers wore aluminum cap cords, interwoven with light blue flecking. Motor pilots used a cord of half and half interwoven aluminum and light blue. Additionally, all ranks had blue-grey piping.

There is also a white summer version.