Report - RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine (The Human Centrifuge), Farnborough - February 2010

[rar]

truly epic something to be proud of as a nation shawly we still have stuff like this its just hush hush epic report...

 

[KingDong71]

What do you want to know? I was an RAF engineer at the RAF IAM in Farnborough between 1991 and 1996, I worked in the high performance chamber and my main job was to produce prototypes for Eurofighter aka EFA aka EFA2000 and finally known as the Typhoon. We had a range of skills. The boss was Dr David Gradwell, google him. He wrote a few books, one being Into Thin Air, but now works at Kings College after retiring from the RAF. Their were a couple of civilian staff, an RAF Medic, RAF Oxygen Engineer and an Air Electronics Engineer as well as myself a Telecommunications engineer. Together we had the right skill set to create a prototype and use ourselves as guinea pigs to see if it worked and try different pressure suit and mask settings for the new aircraft. Being a new aircraft with amazing abilities led to complications - keeping the human body conscious! The main man in charge of the facility was Air Vice Marshall Ernisting how was fantastic. Always moaned about being saluted because he didn't want 'any of that nonsense'. He was a true scientist. In fact I heard a story of how he made a purspex cantainer for his arm so that he could watch the blood boil under the skin as he took it altitude (by creating a vacuum).

Anyway, with the readily available guineapigs we volunteered to take part in climate trials, centrifuge trials and long term trials in the older (tube shaped) decompression chambers such as purposely giving the subject the bends to see the bubbles going through heart. I have the Polaroid of my own bubbles..... There was also a very small pool where we trialed new immersion suits staying in 2 hours of 8'c water and rewarded with a lovely 40'c Jacuzzi afterwards. A neuroscience lab was behind the back gate after the storage garages, closest to the IAM facility. This facility I will not discuss about purely because the I had very little dealings with it and certain groups would start moaning. Nothing secret, or hush hush, just better left alone.

Not a lot of RAF even know that NASA Astronauts used to visit annually for decompression training which was fruitful as they would arrive with uniform badges and souvenirs. My colleague even manages to persuade one to part with his bomber jacket!

So with the equipment being old and at it's maximum a new facility had to built and it was cheaper to build new than remove the old which would not only be costly but take a long time during which all trials and training would have to cease.

The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine is now called the Centre of Aviation at RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire.

If you want to see the equipment in action during a Rapid Decompression, usually 21,000ft to 60,000ft in either 3 seconds or faster if we are simulating a missile taking off the canopy, oh yes, plus me G-Locking on the centrifuge, then I have posted some on YouTube, including the one stolen on this topic. If you have any questions, I will happily answer them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hossn73ehuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNc_IN1ISYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAUmTFrjYbo

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/docume...nals/Journal_43_Seminar_Aviation_Medicine.pdf

 

[mookster]

What do you want to know? I was an RAF engineer at the RAF IAM in Farnborough between 1991 and 1996, I worked in the high performance chamber and my main job was to produce prototypes for Eurofighter aka EFA aka EFA2000 and finally known as the Typhoon. We had a range of skills. The boss was Dr David Gradwell, google him. He wrote a few books, one being Into Thin Air, but now works at Kings College after retiring from the RAF. Their were a couple of civilian staff, an RAF Medic, RAF Oxygen Engineer and an Air Electronics Engineer as well as myself a Telecommunications engineer. Together we had the right skill set to create a prototype and use ourselves as guinea pigs to see if it worked and try different pressure suit and mask settings for the new aircraft. Being a new aircraft with amazing abilities led to complications - keeping the human body conscious! The main man in charge of the facility was Air Vice Marshall Ernisting how was fantastic. Always moaned about being saluted because he didn't want 'any of that nonsense'. He was a true scientist. In fact I heard a story of how he made a purspex cantainer for his arm so that he could watch the blood boil under the skin as he took it altitude (by creating a vacuum).

Anyway, with the readily available guineapigs we volunteered to take part in climate trials, centrifuge trials and long term trials in the older (tube shaped) decompression chambers such as purposely giving the subject the bends to see the bubbles going through heart. I have the Polaroid of my own bubbles..... There was also a very small pool where we trialed new immersion suits staying in 2 hours of 8'c water and rewarded with a lovely 40'c Jacuzzi afterwards. A neuroscience lab was behind the back gate after the storage garages, closest to the IAM facility. This facility I will not discuss about purely because the I had very little dealings with it and certain groups would start moaning. Nothing secret, or hush hush, just better left alone.

Not a lot of RAF even know that NASA Astronauts used to visit annually for decompression training which was fruitful as they would arrive with uniform badges and souvenirs. My colleague even manages to persuade one to part with his bomber jacket!

So with the equipment being old and at it's maximum a new facility had to built and it was cheaper to build new than remove the old which would not only be costly but take a long time during which all trials and training would have to cease.

The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine is now called the Centre of Aviation at RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire.

If you want to see the equipment in action during a Rapid Decompression, usually 21,000ft to 60,000ft in either 3 seconds or faster if we are simulating a missile taking off the canopy, oh yes, plus me G-Locking on the centrifuge, then I have posted some on YouTube, including the one stolen on this topic. If you have any questions, I will happily answer them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hossn73ehuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNc_IN1ISYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAUmTFrjYbo

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/docume...nals/Journal_43_Seminar_Aviation_Medicine.pdf

Thanks for that! I loved this place me always an interested in any info about it.

 

[Wheaters]

I was "lucky" enough to undergo training in the decompression chamber, firstly at North Luffenham in the late 1970s (where I believe the Farnborough chambers were moved from) as part of my RAF jet training, then later at Farnborough in 1988. The latter was after a sinus operation so that I could prove I could withstand rapid pressure changes without problems. As it happened, I did better than the American doctor who accompanied me and got a clean bill of health allowing me to fly any RAF type.

 

[Natrix]

You can normally visit both the wind tunnel and the cetrifuge on Heritage Open Days every year Homepage

Both are well worth a visit.

 

[didiclimbit]

awesome gunna have to go there then !

and is it still there?

 

[mookster]

and is it still there?

The centrifuge is a listed building and is now used as a museum/educational facility.

It was never actually closed like the rest of the site, it just happened to be explorable in the early days that this place was known about.