The Man-machine Interface
Pilot-physicians use dual expertise to save lives and aircraft
Story by Tech. Sgt. Brandon Shapiro
13 June 2016
Depending on the individuals career path, most start out as military pilots and then move on to medical school. Once selected into the Pilot-Physician program they combine their experience as pilots with their expertise as medical doctors to scrutinize the physiological interaction of humans and the aircraft they fly. In a case like that of the F-22, the technologically bilingual skill set of the pilot-physician played an essential role in investigating aerial incidents and mishaps.
(U.S. Air Force Video by Andrew Arthur Breese)
Referred to by pilots as the “baddest jet on the planet,” the F-22 Raptor has a factsheet that reads like a futuristic spacecraft and boasts that it “cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.” On paper, its capabilities give pilots complete dominance of the battlespace.
Yet, in May of 2011, the Air Force grounded its entire fleet of F-22s for four months after pilots reported unexplained episodes of disorientation, nausea and shortness of breath during flight.
Investigators and engineers from the Air Force and Lockheed Martin, the developer of the world’s most advanced fighter jet, were stumped as to the cause.
When the Raptors resumed limited operations with flight altitude restrictions, there were still dozens of documented accounts of pilots suffering from hypoxia-like symptoms.
That’s when the Air Force turned to its cadre of pilot-physicians.
http://airman.dodlive.mil/2016/06/the-man-machine-interface/
