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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0167.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 January 1951 FITNESS FOR DUTY . . . In addition to the mitts and wristlets, working gloves have also been designed in cotton-backed and wool-backed variants. Both are intended for normal use under not very severe conditions and for survival use in camp. The footwear devised for dry-cold conditions consists of three pairs of socks, sized to fit over one another without creases; a duffle sock made of felt-like blanketing, and in appearance more like an adult version of a baby's bootee than anything else; a felt and velour insole to provide effec- tive insulation beneath the foot; and, finally, a mukluk. This last is a rubber-soled canvas-topped boot, which is lace- closed. The sole is ribbed to give good traction on snow. Another item of specialized clothing, but this time at the other end of the scale, and not protective in the ordinarily accepted sense of the term, is an air-ventilated suit. In the tropics, the maintenance of skin temperature at equable levels is no mean problem; if a fighter pilot has to sit at readiness in a cockpit the temperature of which may be torturingly high, his efficiency as a fighting unit will be negligible unless means are provided to alleviate his discom- fort. A comparable problem exists in flight at high speed, as a result of the kinetic heating of the fuselage conjointly with the stuffiness of the specialized clothing, life-jacket, parachute harness and so forth which a pilot must wear, and which all tend toward increasing his skin temperature to unacceptable levels. To meet these requirements, a suit has been devised which, made of nylon, incorporates an arterial system of plastic tubes that diffuse cool air at no fewer than 92 points throughout the garment. By supplying cooled air at 85 deg F to all parts of the body where perspiration is most pronounced, skin temperatures can be brought down to comfortable levels within a few seconds and, in that cool- ing is achieved by evaporation of perspiration, inherent " automatic control" is achieved—that is to say, if the wearer is not perspiring, no cooling takes place. Air supply for the suit is tapped from the cabin-supercharge system at approxi- mately 12-15 cu ft/min, and 74- lb/sq in; until such time as cockpit refrigeration becomes general, the air will be piped through the coil of an ice/water cooling box. The effectiveness of the air-ventilated suit has been amply •proved by tests conducted in the Institute's hot room, a scientific* hammam where the discomfort of high tempera- 107 The officer is seen emerging from the cold chamber where, for two hours he had experienced —40 deg C, his body temperature having been re- corded by his fellow M.O. outside the chamber. He is wearing the new outer parka with fur-edged wind-cowl hood. The ventilated suit embodies a system of conduits terminating at 92 outlets for supplying cool or warm air to critical areas of the body. tures can be emphasized by feeding-in varying values of relative humidity. This chamber has its opposite mftnber .just down the corridor—a cold room where the temperature can be lowered to -55 deg C (by a methyl-chloride re- frigerating system), whilst at the same time, winds up to 30 m.p.h. can be artificially created, and pressure be reduced to an altitude equivalent of 75,000ft. Having dealt at some length with certain of the finite results of the Institute's work, we must now content our- selves with indicating the scope of its interests by taking a random example of laboratory equipment. Electrics and electronics play a fairly large part in almost all physical research work today, and in the electronic laboratory of the I.A.M. have been built a variety of exceedingly interesting items of research equipment. Not the least of these is a device whereby the purity of water can be checked. For certain chemical experiments it is necessary that water of ultra-high purity be used; it is_ obtained by passing dis- tilled water through filters of activated resins. Obviously, it is desirable that some means should exist whereby the effective life of these resins can be assessed, and the purity of the product-water measured. An instrument for this purpose has been developed which, by the intermittent flash- ing of a light bulb, automatically signals when the ultra- pure water becomes in the slightest degree contaminated. We have also made brief reference to the five aircraft used by the Institute; these are a Meteor 7, a Spitfire 22, a Vam- ' pire 5, a Mosquito T3, and a Harvard. The Meteor 7 is used for general high-performance work, and both seats are equipped with anti-g valves for use with g-suits. Ultra-sonic vibration is also studied in this aircraft, the results being analyzed electronically. The Spitfire is used chiefly for high-g work; it is so strong an aircraft that it is eminently suited to this field. The Vampire 5 has been used for the development of g-suits served by tappings from the engine compressor, and also for the development of the air- ventilated suit supplied with air from the same source. The Mosquito is used for the development of a system for record- ing pilot efficiency in instrument flying, and also for extract- ing values of individual instrument design. The aircraft is equipped with S.B.A., I.L.S. and Y.G. (U.S. Navy letter- sector-beacon system), and is fitted with amber screens for use with blue goggles to simulate blind flying; dual control is fitted for a " safety pilot." - The Harvard is a general- purpose aircraft which is used for transport and for instru- ment flying practice. The fact that the Institute has its own aircraft is regarded as a matter of very real importance in that it keeps the research personnel genuinely air-minded and in real touch with their work—in short, when a man air-tests a piece of equipment he has been working on, he is not likely to take a remote, academic view of the work. C.B.B-W.
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