Studies of cardiovascular responses during acceleration stress

A description is given of the development of a novel mode of acceleration protection for pilots of high-performance aircraft. Design of the protection system was done in iterative cycles of mathematical modeling, hardware and software design, and experimental testing. The model was used both as a means of quantitatively investigating acceleration effects and as a tool for studying the relative effectiveness of several methods of acceleration protection. Based on model predictions, a novel anti-G suit modality was developed. An experimental G-suit and associated electronic and pneumatic control systems were designed and tested in experiments. Results demonstrated that the pulsating G-suit provides acceleration protection beyond that of the standard suit. The amount of additional protection varied with subject and suit mode, with a maximum of 0.6 G.<>