Heat stress reduction of helicopter crew wearing a ventilated vest.
BACKGROUND
Helicopter pilots are often exposed to periods of high heat strain, especially when wearing survival suits. Therefore, a prototype of a ventilated vest was evaluated on its capability to reduce the heat strain of helicopter pilots during a 2-h simulated flight.


OBJECTIVE
It was hypothesized that the ventilated vest would reduce pilot heat stress.


METHODS
Five male and one female helicopter pilots flew for 2 h in a simulator in three different conditions; 15 degrees C wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) without ventilation, 32 degrees C WBGT without ventilation, and 32 degrees C WBGT with a ventilated vest.


RESULTS
Wearing the ventilated vest significantly reduced the increase in rectal temperature and increased thermal comfort. This made it possible for all subjects to complete the 2-h session.


CONCLUSIONS
With the ventilated vest the subjects experienced less heat stress, thereby allowing all subjects to successfully complete the experiment, though two of the six pilots could not complete the 2-h flying task in the hot condition without cooling due to heat-related problems.
Reffeltrath
Peter A
PA
Operational Performance Group, Department of Performance and Comfort, TNO Human Factors, Soesterberg, The Netherlands. Peter.Reffeltrath@tno.nl
D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D001831:Body Temperature; D005260:Female; D018882:Heat Stress Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011481:Protective Clothing; D013696:Temperature; D014691:Ventilation