Prone Pilot

Fighter pilots of the future may take their flying lying down. This week Wright Field's Aero-Medical Laboratory told about a "prone position pilot bed" that it is developing to replace the conventional pilot's seat (see cut).

The pilot bed, an improvement on early German design, is made of strong nylon mesh hung between side boards curved to fit the pilot's body. The mesh can be loosened to make room for broad hips, and a rounded belly (which are among the occupational hazards of airmen). The pilot's jaw rests on a padded adjustable shelf. A counter-weighted forehead strap takes the strain off his neck. He steers the plane by resting his forearms in movable "pans" with hand grips for stick, throttle, etc., at their forward ends. His feet work the rudder, brakes, or both.

One advantage of the pilot bed is that a pilot lying down does not have as much frontal area as a pilot sitting up. This was not very important with old-fashioned propeller planes. There was plenty of space for a seated pilot behind a reciprocating engine. But jet engines are slimmer and designers have learned to fold tanks and guns into nose and wings. To take full advantage of lower frontal areas, pilots may have to stretch out in the direction of the airstream.

The prone position bed will also reduce blackouts. When an airplane pulls out of a dive or makes a sharp turn, the pilot's weight increases because of centrifugal force: if he is sitting the blood pulls into the lower part of his body, leaving his brain without proper blood supply.

When the pilot is lying down, his blood tends to stay put because most of his body is on the same level. Air Force doctors have proved that a pilot in the prone position bed can take from ten to twelve "Gs"* of centrifugal force without blacking out. Four and one half Gs is about all a sitting pilot can take without a cumbersome G-suit.

So far, the Air Force has tested its pilot bed only on the ground and in the bombardier's compartment of a B17. Eleven pilots have ridden in it snugly battened down for eight hours each. They report that the bed is comfortable, but complain of boredom because of restricted movement.

Next step will be to test the bed in the nose of an F80 jet fighter. But its full advantage will not be known until a special extra-slim jet plane has been designed around it.

*At ten Gs a pilot's body weighs ten times as much as normally.

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