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Old 13th May 2007, 17:09
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BOAC
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There is a tendency to get confused over the function of a g-suit. As I posted on the Blue Angel's thread, unless g-suits and the human body have changed drastically since my military days (ok - I KNOW my body has) the main function of the suit is to reduce fatigue caused by prolonged and frequent applications of high g, which are commonly experienced in the 'average' day of up to 4 sorties in a fighter. By reducing the effort the body has to generate to combat the g they thus make you less tired. I cannot recall the 'increase' in g-threshold with a suit, but I think it was only of the order of 1-1 1/2g, and I further think that seating the pilot in a prone position has a greater effect on g-threshold, but that is outside my experience.

To further the 'water' line, I seem to recall a Russian experiment with a water filled cockpit in which up to 20 g were sustainable by a suitably 'oxygenated pilot'.

Light a/c aerobatics rarely have sustained high g, whereas in jet combat it was not unusual to sustain 4-5 g for many seconds - and that is exhausting even with a suit. The BAe Lightning could sustain a 6g turn for a long time (until the fuel ran out) - ok, 2 minutes, then
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