John Paul Stapp
John Paul Stapp , Colonel, USAF (born July 11, 1910 in Bahia , Brazil , † November 13, 1999 in Alamogordo , New Mexico ) was a pioneer in researching the effects of acceleration forces on the human body.
Particularly noteworthy are his self-experiments on rocket sleds , in which he exposed himself to great stress and with his results contributed to the safety of passengers in aircraft and to the further development of seat belts , as well as the Stapp Car Crash Conference , a traffic safety conference (named after him) that still takes place today .
He was a colleague of Chuck Yeager , who was the first man to achieve a verifiable speed close to Mach 1, and he himself became the "fastest person on earth".
Childhood, career as a medic and with the Army Air Corps
John Paul Stapp was the son of the Reverend Charles F. Stapp. He spent his childhood in Brazil, where his parents, who were both teachers, gave him a primary education. At the age of twelve he was taken to the United States where he graduated from the San Marcos Academy in San Marcos, Texas, high school .
Stapp went to Baylor University in Waco (Texas) in 1927 and got his bachelor's degree there in 1931 and his “ Master of Arts ” in zoology and chemistry in 1932 . From 1932 to 1934 he was a lecturer in zoology and chemistry at Decatur Baptist College in Decatur, Texas. Stapp went to the University of Texas at Austin in 1934 , where he earned his doctorate in biophysics in 1940 and his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1944. He did an internship at St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota.
On October 4, 1944, he joined the United States Army Air Corps in the Medical Corps with the rank of First Lieutenant and graduated from the Medical Field Service School in Carlisle Barracks (Pennsylvania) in 1944 , the Flight Surgeon's Course at the School of Aviation Medicine in 1945 and in 1946 the Industrial Medical Seminar .
Stapps research and experiments on himself
On August 10, 1946, Stapp was transferred to the Aero Medical Laboratory at the Wright Air Development Center (called Wright Field ). When researching the effects of high altitudes on the human body, he first tested various liquid oxygen systems. To do this, he flew at an altitude of over 12 km without an active positive pressure cabin and was later able to show, among other things, that inhaling highly concentrated oxygen more than 30 minutes before departure prevented medically dangerous symptoms - such as blistering in the blood. It was planned to conduct further research on aircraft accidents ( crash survival program ), e.g. B. on ejection seats and parachute harnesses. First of all, test setups had to be developed that could be used for research and simulation . Due to his previous successes, Stapp was assigned the supervision of a “deceleration project” for this research purpose , which he saw in April 1947.
Initially, the facilities for the new project were to be built on a new facility near the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field . The Edwards Air Force Base (then called Muroc however) had in the desert Mojave at this time just a V1 ended rockets research program. The site and the test equipment have now been transferred to Stapps “deceleration project” in order to save the new building at Wright Field . A team from Northrop Aircraft Inc carried out the necessary conversions according to the specifications of the Aero Medical Laboratory . In the following project, a rocket sled was accelerated and then controlled, but drastically, braked. The human decelerator (English, human for "human", decelerator for "decelerator"), also called Gee Whiz , consisted of an approx. 700 kg heavy sledge, which was attached to a 600 m long track on a solid foundation. Four sturdy sliding feet connected the slide to the rails and allowed it to slide freely. The drive consisted of rockets with 4 kN thrust at the rear of the slide. The sled was braked by an approx. 14 m long mechanical braking unit, which was probably one of the most effective in the world. In the braking unit, up to 45 pairs of gripping braking surfaces were attached to the foundation, between the tracks, which attached to the approx. 3.4 m long braking plates on the underside of the slide and thus provided the braking force due to friction . The amount of braking could be varied by varying the number of brake pairs.
The first run of the rocket sled took place on April 30, 1947 with a dummy named "Oscar Eightball" on the seat. The sledge jumped off the rails on this first attempt. After some improvements and 32 unmanned runs, the first run with a human - Stapp himself - as a passenger took place in December 1947. Since the experimental setup was still in development, it took until August 1948 for data collection to begin - by that time, however, 16 manned runs had already taken place. While these runs all took place with passengers seated behind, attempts began in August 1949 with a view in the direction of travel. The first attempts were made to compare different aircraft and parachute harnesses used by the American Air Force .
Up to June 8, 1951, a total of 74 manned runs had taken place, 19 of which the test persons were sitting backwards and the other 55 were facing the direction of travel. Stapp himself was one of the volunteers who took part in the runs most often and suffered a few injuries, such as: B. (twice) a fracture of the right wrist and individual ribs. A regular symptom after the test runs was bleeding in the eyes, which therefore turned dark.
During his research time at Edwards Air Force Base, Stapp also took part in experiments in which open-top planes were used. It should be checked under which conditions a pilot can exit the cockpit in flight . Stapp flew in an airplane at approx. 917 km / h with the top down, but suffered no significant injuries from the head wind.
In June 1951, Stapp returned to Wright Field , but in 1953 he moved to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico , where he had laboratories and good equipment for further research in biomechanics. Above all (again by Northrop) an even more powerful human decelerator , later called Sonic Wind , with a longer acceleration distance should be built. The acceleration was provided by a separate acceleration sled with 12 rockets, which, however, detached itself from the test sled after the acceleration phase and thus reduced the total mass occurring during braking. The braking was achieved here by a water basin of variable depth, into which the sledge's blades dipped and braked it by the displacement of the water. In November 1953 the first test runs took place on the completed facility with Sierra Sam , a crash test dummy specially developed for this purpose, and in January 1954 with a chimpanzee . In addition to the runs with the head of the research project himself, around 80 test runs with chimpanzees on the rocket sled were carried out - Stapp himself had spoken out against letting volunteers other than himself ride the sled.
Stapp believed that the human resistance had not yet been reached during his test series and was significantly higher than assumed. In 1954, it accelerated to 632 mph (approx. 1017 km / h) in one run (looking in the direction of travel) and could be fully braked in 1.4 seconds. At the moment of maximum braking, the force of gravity was 46.2 times (46.2 g) and 25 g for 1.1 seconds at a time. This is the highest acceleration that a person has so far voluntarily withstood. The Time magazine then published as a tribute to The fastest man on earth and No. 1 hero of the Air Force , in German "The fastest man on earth and hero number 1 of the Air Force" ( Time, The Weekly Newsmagazine , September 12, 1955). Stapp had told Time Magazine, which showed a photo of one of his attempts on the cover, that he was leading a “ crusade for the prevention of needless deaths” .
Stapp personally announced that he wanted to carry out a test run at 1000 mph (approx. 1609 km / h). But this manned run, during which Stapp would have significantly exceeded the speed of sound , never took place because the safety concerns were too great. That turned out to be the right decision, as the rocket sled jumped out of the guide during an unmanned run in June 1956 and was partially destroyed.
Use the results of Stapps for aviation
Stapps' research on the two test facilities and in the aircraft cabins produced numerous new findings for both military and civil aviation .
When Stapp began his research in 1946/1947, it was assumed by scientific aviation that a load of over 18 g would be fatal for humans. Adapted to this, the safety devices in aircraft were only tested for suitability up to 18 g. After reviewing accident reports, however, there was a suspicion that some deceased pilots might have survived their violent accidents if the safety devices (seats and belts) had withstood the strain of more than 18 g. In his self-experiments, Stapp was able to show that people - especially when facing backwards - could be exposed to significantly greater stresses from negative accelerations (braking). As a result of these results, numerous transport aircraft of the American Air Force and the British Royal Air Force were equipped with more resilient seats and a rearward seating position. The seats used had to be able to withstand up to 32 g from then on, as the data finally showed that a pilot can survive these values if the seat has the necessary resistance and does not break loose, and if the belts hold.
Another new development from Stapps was the side saddle - a belt that can offer great protection to troops in transport planes sitting side by side in a row. The new belts were made of nylon and protected the wearer in the event of an aircraft impact or jumps during landing with a force of up to 36 kN at 32 g. They replaced the hip belts previously used, which offered poor protection.
Stapps has also achieved an improved version of the combination of shoulder and hip belts. These now had to be able to withstand 45.4 g (445 m / s²) instead of just 17 g (167 m / s²) (like the old version) and, due to the changed arrangement of the straps on the body, no longer endangered very vulnerable areas, such as for example the solar plexus .
Automobile accident research and traffic accident conference
During his research period, Stapp often announced that private vehicles had to be made safer. He resolutely advocated automotive accident research and the introduction of seat belts.
He initiated a traffic accident research program at Holloman Air Force Base since the Air Force lost more men to car accidents than to airplane accidents in the late 1940s , and conducted tests on early crash test dummies. In May 1955, 26 representatives from universities, automobile manufacturers and the military, as well as road safety experts and doctors invited by Stapp, visited the Holloman Airbase and were inaugurated on the research results for automobile design and safety, as well as the experimental setups, such as the rocket sled.
The meeting was repeated in 1956 and 1957, and many suggestions won were passed on to automotive and road safety experts. Some recommendations after the meetings were energy-absorbing dashboards, doors that remain closed in the event of an accident , seats that are better connected to the body , and especially seat belts .
Stapp was recalled from the Holloman Airbase, so the conference did not take place in 1958. However, Stapp asked Professor James J. Ryan ( Mechanical Engineering Department of the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota) if the conference could continue. According to Ryan's proposal, the fourth “Stapp Traffic Accident Conference” took place in 1959 , and the name Stapps was honored from now on. Experts from 13 American states took part in the three-day conference from September 17th to 19th, 1971.
In 1962, Professor Ryan gave Colonel Stapp the honorary chairmanship of the Stapp Car Crash Conference , which became more extensive from year to year and was soon held at various universities. The conference takes place annually to this day. In the years before his death Stapp was still president of the New Mexico Research Institute ( New Mexico Research Institute ). In addition, Stapp was honorary chairman of the Stapp Foundation , which was supported by General Motors , and awarded grants for automobile manufacturers.
In 1966, incumbent President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson , signed a law that made seat belts compulsory for all new cars, thanks in part to Stapp, and which has saved millions of lives since then.
John Paul Stapp died of natural causes on November 13, 1999 at the age of 89 in Alamogordo, New Mexico .
Afterlife and appreciation
In 1956, Stapp received an honorary doctorate from Baylor University .
In 1991 Stapp was awarded the "National Medal of Technology": "For his research on the effects of mechanical forces on living beings, which have led to developments in accident prevention technology that promote safety" ("for his research on the effects of mechanical force on living tissues leading to safety developments in crash protection technology ").
Stapp is attributed the Stapp's Ironical Paradox (Stapp's ironical paradox ) - as a statement during his research activities -: “The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle.” (In German roughly: “The general ability to be incapable makes every human An incredible miracle. ” ).
The Air Force engineer Edward A. Murphy was an acquaintance of Stapps and was temporarily involved in the rocket sled experiments. He is credited with the wisdom known as Murphy's Law , which, according to some authors, originated in the Stapps research team.
See also
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Fastest Man on Earth (Part 2 of 4) ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Nick T. Spark; Los Angeles, California.
- ↑ The Story of John Paul Stapp - "The Fastest Man On Earth" by Nick T. Spark; Wings and Airpower Magazine.
- ↑ Stapp.org: Crash Safety Visionary "The Stapp Car Crash Conferences are a living memorial to Col. Stapp's life of research and service" .
- ↑ The Fastest Man on Earth (Part 1 of 4) ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Nick T. Spark; Los Angeles, California.
Web links
- John Paul Stapp in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- The story of John Paul Stapps (in detail) (English)
- Nick T. Spark: The Fastest Man on Earth: Why Everything You Know About Murphy's Law is Wrong
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stapp, John Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American accident researcher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bahia , Brazil |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1999 |
| Place of death | Alamogordo , New Mexico , United States |