U-2 Pilots Trust Team With Their Lives
Most pilots have no
need for a space suit, but it's essential equipment for a U-2
Pilot. They fly their aircraft more than 60,000 feet high. At that
altitude, a loss of cabin pressure could literally cause their
blood to boil.
"The suit is their life," said Staff Sgt. Craig Hawley, launch
and recovery supervisor of the physiological support division of
the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron in an AFPN Report.
"That's where we come in. We take care of the suits; we take care
of the pilots."
"The pilots trust us to do this technical job, and they trust us
to make sure we've made the right decisions and do everything
correctly on the suit," said Staff Sgt. Shann Elmore, a
physiological life-support technician.
Although the cabin of the U-2 is pressurized, the suits provide
essential backup systems. "If the cabin pressure fails, a
controller on the suit will inflate it to an atmosphere of about
35,000 feet," Sergeant Hawley said. "If that fails, a second system
will inflate it to about 37,000 feet. As a last resort, the helmet
will create an atmosphere of about 39,000 feet. That's a high
altitude, but it's better than 63,000 feet where they can't
survive."
At 63,000 feet, blood boils because there is not enough pressure
to sustain oxygen in the blood stream, Sergeant Hawley said. "The
nitrogen comes out of solution and starts boiling in their system.
Bubbles start floating to places like the heart, brain, joints and
bones, and that's not good for them," he said.
Nitrogen bubbles in the blood causes decompression sickness,
similar to what scuba divers could face if they surface too
quickly. U-2 pilots also breathe 100 percent oxygen for one hour
before flight to try and rid the blood of most of its nitrogen.
Hawley said.
The three-layered suits are made of Nomex material with "a
comfort liner that makes the pilots feel like they are getting into
a form-fitted sleeping bag," said Sergeant Hawley. The suits
do leak, but the physiological team tests the suits often to make
sure the rate of leakage does not exceed parameters, officials
said.
"Every time I fly high, I put my life in the hands of these
technicians," said Maj. Cory Bartholomew, a U-2 pilot. "Their
professionalism instills confidence. I've never once worried that
the suit might fail."
The space suits are made in about 12 different sizes. Pilots
select a suit based on their body size, and it is custom fitted
with adjustable panels in the torso, arms and legs. Each pilot has
two suits, and each one costs about $125,000, officials said.
It takes three people to get the pilot suited up, checked out
and strapped into the aircraft. Pilots climb into the bulky suit
through an opening in the back. It takes about fifteen minutes to
get the pilot dressed and run through the leak checks. At the
aircraft, a technician straps the pilot into the ejection seat and
makes all the connections to oxygen, cooling air and
communications.
"The suit is not uncomfortable per se, but the U-2 pilots
typically fly missions in excess of nine hours, and anything you
are sitting in for that long can become uncomfortable," Sergeant
Hawley said. "The pilots are fatigued, tired, and sweaty when they
return, and they just want to get out of the aircraft and stretch
out after being cramped in it for hours."
"When the pilots come down and they say that everything worked
fine, that's almost like a thanks to me," Sergeant Elmore said. "At
the debrief we ask if the equipment was OK. If they give us thumbs
up, that's good enough for me."