Air Force Football(NEW YORK) — Sports fans are raving about the new alternate helmet revealed by the Air Force football team Sunday.
The helmet, called AIRPOWER Legacy Series Sharktooth, pays homage to the historic shark design that dates back to World War II.
It will be debuted when Air Force plays Georgia State on Sept. 10.
On Twitter, College Game Day declared that the Air Force “won best helmet of 2016 and the season hasn’t even started yet.” SB Nation tweeted that the helmets were “an awesome nod to history.”
The iconic shark tooth first appeared during World War II on the nose of airplanes belonging to the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force. The group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots across several U.S. military units and it defended China from Japanese forces.
The Flying Tigers were eventually absorbed into the U.S. Army Air Forces, which became the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force. But the image of the fierce shark teeth never disappeared.
To this day, U.S. Air Force jets like the A-10 Thunderbolt display the iconic nose art.
“We wanted to honor the past, present, & future,” Air Force Football tweeted Sunday. “With these we will, wait until you see what’s next!”
This certainly isn’t the first time a military service academy football team has impressed with its helmet design.
Last year, Navy football debuted helmets that paired each class of ship with a football position. For example, defensive backs had helmets that depicted destroyers, wide receivers had submarines, etc.
Those helmets were handpainted for last December’s Army-Navy game — where Navy beat Army for the 14th time in a row, winning 21-17.
For that game, the Army — not to be outdone — designed 17 different helmets representing the 17 branches cadets can enter after graduation. For example, fullbacks had the insignia for the 4th Infantry Division, while safeties wore insignia for the 101st Airborne Division.
It remains to be seen what the Army and Navy will come out with for this year’s rivalry game, but it’s safe to say that all of the military service academy teams have produced meaningful helmet artwork that rivals any top football program.
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