Gentex is the only American life-support equipment company making flight helmets approved by all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces including the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army, as well as by the Coast Guard, NASA, and dozens of governmental agencies. Flight Suits is the only company authorized by Gentex Corporation to distribute Gentex flying helmets in the United States. The internet and aviation publications are full of these ads. However, almost all helmet dealers are actually selling military surplus, used, or reconditioned helmets. Military pilots usually turn in their helmets when they leave the armed forces.
Crewmen often turn in their equipment when they are transferred.
The armed forces sell this used gear for pennies on the dollar at surplus sales. Helmet dealers purchase these obsolete, surplus helmets in bulk. They take them apart, repaint them, replace a few parts, and sometimes they even add parts they have made themselves. Then they sell these helmets for nearly the price of a genuine, new, Gentex helmet. Some helmet dealers falsely advertise their helmets as new when they actually are military surplus.