The Beginnings of Aeromedical Acceleration Research
Abstract
In the early twenties, when structural strength, maneuverability and power of aircraft had increased sufficiently, grey-out and black-out made their first undesirable appearance during flight. Temporary loss of vision was first observed in test flights conducted by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) with the 'novel' aircraft Fokker PW-7 and also in air races during and/or after the pilots rounded the pylons. At first only a small sector of the aeromedical community was attracted to do research into this new field. The early contributions of Garsaux (1919), Doolittle (1924), Bauer (1926), Dobrotvorski (1930), Flamme (1931), and von Diringshofen (1932), are reviewed and discussed. Several misquotations, partly caused by faulty translations, are clarified. It becomes apparent that the exchange of information between the aeromedical investigators, as well as between engineering and aeromedical community, was far from satisfactory. This may be the reason that more than one decade passed before the mechanism of visual impairment was understood and the hemostatical theory by von Diringshofen was established, experimentally proven and generally accepted.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA111048
Entities
People
- Harald J. Von Beckh
Organizations
- Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster