National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The definitive story of pressure suits began long ago and has involved a great many people to obtain the present state of the art as this book well chronicles. Â Many of these people were visionaries who anticipated the need for such highly specialized equipment long before it could actually be employed in any practical application. Â A remarkable number of pressure suit designs were developed early on, the vast majority of which never made it into flight, amounting to little more than science projects. Â Nonetheless, these early â€œexperimentsâ€ informed later work, which led to practical pressure suits when they were needed for high altitude flight.,Â All successful pressure suit designs have been the result of efforts to address a specific need in a specific application, beginning with Wiley Postâ€™s pressure suit designed for use in his Lockheed Vega, the ,Winnie Mae,.Â  Long considered the granddaddy of modern pressure suits, interestingly, Postâ€™s suit was employed principally for protection from hypoxia rather than decompression sickness, since his Lockheed Vegaâ€™s altitude ceiling was 50,000 feet.,Â The first operational full-pressure suit employed (in the D-558-2Â  Douglas Sky-Rocket) for flight above 50,000 feet was also the result of a collaboration between suit designers and pilot (Scott Crossfield). Â This close collaboration continued on for the development of the landmark full pressure suit for the X-15 program. Â The X-15 suit first employed link-net material, originally conceived for the neck section of early U-2 pilot,Helmets to aid pressurized mobility, for the entire restraint layer of the suit. Â This unique material greatly facilitated custom suit fitting and enhanced pilot comfort and remains in use to the present. Â Thus, the X-15 suit is really the granddaddy of modern-day pressure suits as it led directly to the standardized military full-pressure suits that followed and continue in service to the present.Â  Further, the X-15â€™s high performance required that the pressure suit be capable of withstanding exposure to extreme altitudes, temperatures, and high-Q ejections, thus setting the stage to satisfy similar requirements for later programs, namely the A-12, SR-71, XB-70. and Space Shuttle.,Â 
History,Science,Engineering,Nonfiction,Science,Technology,Aviation
Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle