Leather helmet

Howard A. Wooten wearing leather helmet and goggles

A leather helmet is a form of protective headgear (a helmet) fashioned primarily out of leather (usually cowhide).

People have manufactured leather clothing, including headgear, for millennia.

In World War I, tank personnel wore leather helmets with soft interior padding, while pilots of the same era wore soft leather helmets and aviator goggles. In the early days of the automobile, some motorists also adopted this style of headgear. Even today people who drive classic and/or open cars or fly open cockpit planes also often use leather helmets and goggles. In World War II, American, Soviet, German, Italian and French crews wore leather helmets, the Germans disguising theirs under a beret before disposing of both and switching to cloth caps. Flight crews continued with the leather helmets, appropriately extended to enclose radio headphones.

The comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown wears a leather flying helmet with goggles as part of his stage costume.