Abstract
Heat stress can be a significant problem in high-performance aircraft, where it has a measurable physiological impact on aircrew and may alter the Icarninc curve for novel tasks. In these experiments nine men were trained to plateau performance on a compensatory tracking tusk. They were then tested at the end of 2 h exposures to the following conditions (Tdb/Twb, °C): Control (C) 25/ambient, Warm (W) 35/26 and Hot (H) 40/30. For W and H, globe temperature was raised to 12°C above Tdb by infrared lamps. While W was physiologically compensable. H was near the upper limit of tolerance, as shown by steadily rising heart rate. elevated rectal temperature and 1·4 kg mean weight loss. The simplest tracking task showed a small but statistically significant improvement in time on target with heat, while two more difficult tasks showed no change. Human operator modelling supported these findings. Discussion relates these results to actual cockpit conditions and the literature of performance in heat.
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