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Subject Air Force Says F-22 Oxygen Problem is Solved

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Original Message Problem Traced to Unique Combination of Pressure Garment and Cold Weather Survival Gear Worn by Pilots in AK and VA

The Air Force thinks it's solved the years-long mystery of why F-22 pilots have suffered apparent hypoxia-like system's aboard the world's most advanced jet fighter.

And the answer is so insanely simple, some Congressmen simply don't believe it.

According to Congressional Testimony by NASA and Air Force experts earlier this month, the problem lies with an inflatable combat vest that was worn -- in a unique combination with rubberized cold-weather survival gear (needed for ejection over cold water) by pilots -- at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson here in Alaska, and also by pilots at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

The vest, when combined with the bulky cold weather exposure clothing worn by pilots at those two bases to help them survive exposure in an emergency, constricted the chest. Constricted lungs are very bad news for pilots during high-g manaeuvers, such as sharp turns. That's when pilots need a vital supply of oxygenated blood the most -- becuse it is during those maneuvers that blood rushes out of your brain and pools in your stomach and legs.

The clincher to solving the mystery was this. Air Force testing in ground centrifuges -- using the cold weather gear with the inflatable vests -- showed that pilots could not inhale the same volume of oxygen into their lungs, with the rubberized cold weather suits on, as they could without the cold-weather gear. And being able to breathe fully is vastly important when you're under high g-loading at high altitude.

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