Evening star., 1941-02-24
Air Corps Runs School
To Study Effects Of
Altitude on Flyers
Officers Being Taught
To Cope With Hozords
Of the Strotosphere
By JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

H
In the worlds strangest school the
Army Air Corps is meeting the de-
mands of modern warfare for pilots
who can fly and fight at attitudes
where, without adequate protection,
human blood bubbles like ginger ale
in a newly opened bottle.
At these great attitudes, ranging
up to 71a miles above the earth's
surface, lack Of oxygen will cause
a man to lose consciousness in from
/ to 2 minutes. So intense Is the
cold that the lungs give off heat
faster than 1t can be supplied by
the body. Gases in the digestive
tract expand enough to interfere
with heart action and respiration.
To prevent plummeting for miles,
unconscious. before he can open his
parachute in event of battle destruc--
ton of his airplane, the pilot must
carry a pocket oxygen supply, in
addition to that carried in the air
plane.
Effect of High Attitudes.
The school has been established
at the Air Corps Materiel Division,
Wright Field. Dayton, Ohio, to train
approximately 100 selected Air Corps
and Medical Corps officers who, in
turn, are to become instructors in
the technique of substratosphere fly
ing at Air Corps posts throughout
the Nation.
The first class of 80 officers now
Is in training under direction OF
Capt. Otis o. Benson, jr., chief OF the
Wright Field Aero Medical Research
Laboratory and collaboration with
Walter M. Boothby and W. Randolph
Iovelace. I'd, in studies Of high altl-
tude and its effect on the human
bodv which won for them the 1910
Collier Trophy.
Capt. Benson is assisted by such
instructors as Capt. B. 5. Kelsey,
Air Corps, who recently returned
from duty in London as an observer
of the battle of Britain, who Is
teaching the technique of high altl-
tude operations; Maj. Turner A.
Sims, Air Corps, expert on perform
ances of present and projected air
planes at high altitude; Capt. Frank
r. Cook, instructor on physical char-
acteristics of the atmosphere IN re-
lation to high altitude flight, and
Capt. Rudolph Fink, authority on
oxygen and pressurized equipment.
The school is the first Of its kind
ever conducted by the Army Air
Corps and was established as an
outgrowth of the steady pushing OF
the battlefront up into the sub
stratosphere. The drive into space
has become a matter of life and
death, of victory or defeat, for
the worlds fighting air powers. III
is carrying thousands OF COMBAT
pilots and crew members into
regions where they cannot live
without artificial aids and protec-
ton, let alone fight.
Conditions Reproduced.
The Wright Field course includes
STUDY and demonstration OF all the
aids to high altitude operation and
of all the physical, psychological
and medical problems involved. They
are studying the circulatory and
respiratory systems, effects Of cold
and heat on the body, blood gases,
aeroembolism or the ailment caused
by too rapid ascent into the higher
attitudes, carbon monoxide poison
ing, effects of low barometric pres
sure on nasal sinuses, the middle
ear and the gastro-intestinal tract,
and similar subjects.
Part of the school equipment is
a 4O-foot altitude" chamber IN
which physical conditions found at
all attitudes up to 10000 feet can
be reproduced. There also are
small chambers in which students
can simulate altitude flights in
dividually. Actual fights in Army
Flying Fortress bombardment air
planes to attitudes of as much as
10000 feet are a part of the course.
Four classes of 80 Air and Medical
Corps officers each are to be put
through the course in the new school
before the summer training season
to provide nucleus of trained high
altitude experts for every combat
wing and group in the General
Headquarters Air Force.