RT Book, Section
A1 Johnson, Robert
A1 Armstrong, Christopher R.
A1 Orford, Robert R.
A2 Boulton, Matthew L.
A2 Wallace, Robert B.
SR Print(0)
ID 1182682066
T1 Aerospace Medicine
T2 Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health & Preventive Medicine, 16e
YR 2022
FD 2022
PB McGraw Hill
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259644511
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182682066
RD 2024/04/20
AB Aerospace  medicine  is  a  preventive  medicine  specialty  focusing  on  the  health  of  crewmembers  and  passengers  of  air  and  space  vehicles,  and  the  people  who  support  the  operation  of  such  vehicles.  In  contrast  to  most  physicians  who  evaluate  and  care  for  persons  with  abnormal  physiology  (illness)  in  normal  (terrestrial)  environments,  aerospace  medicine  specialists  evaluate  and  assist  healthy  individuals  and  individuals  with  abnormal  physiology  to  function  optimally  in  abnormal  (nonterrestrial),  remote,  isolated,  extreme,  or  enclosed  environments  under  conditions  of  physical  and  psychological  stress.  While  aerospace  medicine  began  with  the  balloon  flights  of  the  Montgolfier  brothers  in  the  late  1700s  and  the  experiments  of  Paul  Bert  a  century  later,  the  field  grew  quickly  after  the  demonstration  of  controlled  powered  flight  by  the  Dayton,  Ohio-based  Wright  brothers  at  Kittyhawk,  North  Carolina,  in  1903.  Thousands  of  civilian  and  military  aircraft  were  built  and  flown  before  and  during  World  War  I,  with  rapid  technological  advances.  Commercial  aviation  began  in  the  1920s,  initially  in  unpressurized  aircraft  flying  short  distances  at  low  altitudes.  Pressurized  aircraft  in  the  1930s  allowed  higher,  further,  and  faster  flights.  During  World  War  II,  the  need  for  air  superiority  dictated  the  development  of  breathing  systems  and  pressure  suits  to  allow  pilots  to  fly  even  higher  and  faster,  and  with  greater  maneuverability.1