Imagine How We’d Have To Dress For A Flight Without Pressurized Cabins

GE electric flying suit for the U.S. Air Corps – 1941

When GE designed this electric flying suit for the U.S. Air Corps, pressurized airplane cabins were not yet in use. At high altitudes, cabins could reach temperatures capable of freezing flesh to metal.

The image above shows a test of a GE electric flying suit at 63 degrees below zero in a cold room at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey in 1941. GIF by Kevin Weir / flux machine.

(via generalelectric)

Introducing: The First Crash-Test Dummy, Elmer

Elmer, the Pilot’s Friend – Continental Oil Co., 1952.  Illustration: James R. Bingham

‘Born’ in the CAA machine shop, Elmer is a remarkably lifelike steel and rubber dummy, designed for studies in improving shoulder harness for pilots. Elmer is so cleverly designed that his compressibility, flexibility, center of gravity, muscular contraction and natural relaxation are almost exactly that of the human body. He even has a roll of ‘flesh’ above the belt when he is bent over! Elmer is an example of how Civil Aeronautics Administration scientists worked to improve air transportation.

(Source: Plan59)