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Show Fliers Suffer Mental Lapse High-Speed Planes Subject Pilots to Enormous Physical Stress. SCHENECTADY. The modern aviator, flying new high-speed airplanes, air-planes, is subjected to greater physical phys-ical stresses and. strains than ever before encountered by any group oi men, in the opinion of Dr. Carl F. Schmidt, an authority on respiration. respira-tion. Schmidt, professor of pharmacology pharmacol-ogy at the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, in a discussion here said there are four circumstances under un-der which an aviator may lose consciousness con-sciousness with little or no warning, warn-ing, and although the results are the same, the causes and prevention preven-tion are different. "The first and perhaps the best known is the 'blackout,' " Schmidt said, "suffered by the occupants oi a plane when its direction is suddenly sud-denly changed while traveling at high speed like a case of a giant bomber coming out of its power dive." Blood Pressure Falls. The factor responsible for the . "blackout" in this case is centrifu-gal centrifu-gal force. The movable contents ol ' the plane try to keep on going in the same direction as they were 4 ufnr-a thu nilnt altered uavciig .J . i the direction of flight. The result is that a considerable quantity of the flier's blood is held in his legs and feet and is not returned to the heart to be pumped out again. Consequently Conse-quently his blood pressure falls sharply, he becomes blind and he may lose consciousness. The "blackout" "black-out" is brief because it is due to centrifugal force brought into play by change of direction; it ceases operating as soon as the plane flattens flat-tens out on its new course. And the pilot quickly recovers unless he crashes first. "The second type 'blackout' is that due to insufficient oxygen in the blood," Schmidt explained. "This is encountered as one ascends in a plane until there no longer is enough oxygen in the air inhaled to meet the needs of the body for this essential gas." 'Bends' Also Suffered. A third type "blackout" again altogether different has to do with the aviator's counterpart of "the bends" encountered by deep sea div- ers when they come to the surtace too quickly. "An aviator," Schmidt added, "ascending rapidly from sea level to an altitude of about 33,000 feet is in exactly the same danger of 'the bends' as a diver coming up from 100 feet below the surface in the same period of time. In other words the atmospheric pressure at 33,000 feet is just one quarter of that at sea level, and the aviator ascending to that height and the diver coming up from the submergence submerg-ence at 100 feet are both being decompressed de-compressed in the ratio of four . to one." In this case, according to the professor, pro-fessor, if the nitrogen bubbles happen hap-pen to obstruct important blood vessels ves-sels in the brain, or if they form a froth in the heart, either aviator or diver might have a rapid "blackout." "black-out." The only effective treatment is rapid decompression by coming down to a lower altitude. The fourth form of "blackout," Schmidt concluded, is one that may occur when an aviator suddenly increases in-creases the proportion of oxygen in his lungs after he has been getting along on a subnormal supply for some time. |