Chuck Yeager says : The P51 pilots had G suits during WW2 !

[Saintaw]

This came as a surprise to me, but I just heard these words come out of his mouth in a Television programme on BBC2 tonight !
"...which was good for us, as we could make some 6 G turns while the gremans could not..."

Someone has more details on that ? This interests me a LOT since I stopped flying the pony because I keep blacking out in it ...

[Karnak]

R.R.Stanford Tuck mentioned G-suits in his book.  He flew Spits and Hurris.  Basicly, tight leggings with tubes of water.  In high Gs the water would make the leggings tighter and keep more blood in the pilots head.

Sisu

[buhdman]

Saintaw said that Yeager said:

"...which was good for us, as we could make some 6 G turns while the gremans could not..."

What's a greman?

buhdman, out  

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Walt (buhdman) Barrow
(formerly lt-buhd-lite)
The Buccaneers - "Return with Honor"
home.earthlink.net/~wjbarrow

[Yeager]

Yeager commented that some testing was done late in WW2 with early G-suits using water filled bladders to exert pressure on the lower extremities during high G maneovers (4-5 Gs).  Problems were encounterd during negative Gs and the water tended to freeze at Alt.

He did not mention whether these G-suites were issued to regular combat pilots during the war but he did say that the test results were very promising and instrumental in the  developement of very successsful follow-on G-suits.

Yeager

[Citabria]

6 G's isn't a lot though, not near enough to need a G suit anyways
if you just tense up a bit thats about the right amount of G to have a really great time  

[Soulyss]

Bud Anderson in his book talks about the G-suits they wore as early as late 1944 it seems (He mentions that they were using them during a sortie on Nov 27 1944).  They tried two different kinds, the water filled which were mentioned before but had problems with the water freezing.  They also used air filled suits which worked much better, and allowed the pilots to pull an extra one or two G's before blacking out which gave them a pretty big advantage over the german pilots that didn't have them.  

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"Sorry can't talk now, gotta shoot."
            -Bud Anderson

[This message has been edited by Soulyss (edited 05-25-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Soulyss (edited 05-25-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Soulyss (edited 05-25-2000).]

[Hooligan]

From:
 
 http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/online/nanney.pdf
 
Army Airforces Medical Services in World War II by James S Nanney
 
Page 1.
 
Page 1.
 
The Army Air Forces (AAF) relied on many types of medical support in World War II. One of the greatest medical contributions was research ad development of personal survival gear and equipment for fighter and bomber crews. AAF doctors, for example, helped design the first flying suits that countered the physiological effects of the excess gravity forces (g-forces) in high-speed maneuvers. Aided by the U.S. Navy and organizations in Allied countries, the AAF Aeromedical Laboratory at Wright Field, Ohio, developed the first clothing designed successfully to counter-act the negative effects of g-forces. Early in 1944, U.S. crewmen began to use the G-suits in Europe. G-suits were tactically valuable because they helped fighter pilots maintain consciousness under high gravitational forces. One P–51 pilot, who was credited with shooting down five enemy planes on one sortie, wrote:
 
I found myself all alone in the middle of a bunch of Jerrys. Having no one to keep Jerry off my tail I had to keep full throttle and keep my air speed sufficient so that I could break away from anyone coming up on my tail. This maneuver would normally black me out but my G-suit kept me fully conscious of what was going on. I followed Jerry down to the deck, picking up an air speed of 600 mph. The Jerry went straight in without pulling out, and I would have, too, if I had not been wearing my G-suit.

Hooligan

[Daff]

Cit, very little was known about G-forces at that time. Straining exercises didnt exist, smoking was very common and in general people drank more.
The only thing they really had going for them, was constant exposure to G's, but how much does that really help, if you dont know how to strain properly?.
Remember that the average persons G-tolerance is around 3-3.5 G's. (Without prior exposure and briefing).

Daff


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CO, 56th Fighter Group

[Duckwing6]

Daff as you said .. they had regulare exposure to G..

Straining comes pretty intuitive because when you're exposed to High G forces you will intuitively try to get relief .. so you'll learn some straining on your own (might not be the highly effective "exercise" they teach nowadays.. but that's pretty subjective anyways IMHO)

[-aper-]

 

"...which was good for us, as we could make some 6 G turns while the gremans could not..."

Sure relief tubes also helped alot with 6G turns