Word: diringshofen
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Died. Dr. Hein von Diringshofen, 67, German pioneer in aviation and space medicine, who in the early 1930s was the first to study the effects of high gravity forces and weightlessness on the human body, frequently used himself as a guinea pig in hell-diving Stukas and free-fall parachute jumps, in 1934 constructed the first experimental human centrifuge, predecessor of the ones now used in training astronauts, later served as the Luftwaffe's chief medical officer in World War II; of cancer; in Frankfurt, Germany...
...Alexander Bott, who teaches aviation psychology in the University of Toronto, noticed that the New York Academy of Medicine had tucked away on its shelves a little book called Medizinischer Leitfaden für fliegende Besatzungen (Medical Guide for Flying Personnel). Written for German pilots by Dr. Heinz von Diringshofen, chief medical officer of the German Air Corps, it was published shortly before the invasion of Poland...
...oxygen to avoid altitude sickness. Fliers who do not use oxygen, and succumb to altitude sickness, do not realize their plight, for oxygen lack, like alcohol, produces an exaggerated sense of confidence. Like drunkards, they are unable to concentrate. Most fliers who are shot down, continued Dr. von Diringshofen, suffer from oxygen lack...
Centrifugal Force. Greatest physical danger in dive bombing and aerial fighting, said Dr. von Diringshofen, is centrifugal force. "In a bombing attack the bombs are often released in an almost vertical dive at a speed which may be above 310 miles an hour and are released when the aeroplane is only 2,200-1,900 feet above the ground. Immediately the bomber must ascend to avoid the ground." If such a change in direction takes place in about six seconds, the pilot is pressed into his seat with a force more than eight times his weight, and his blood becomes...
Blood leaves the brain and sinks to the stomach. Loss of blood in the brain produces a "grey veil" before the pilot's eyes, later, a brief blackout. Best way to resist centrifugal force is to lie on the back. It might be good physics, continued Dr. von Diringshofen, to install a tilting seat in fighting planes which would enable fliers to lean backwards. But it would be bad psychology. For in "a hot and heavy fight" a man on his back would lose all fighting spirit...
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