Col John Paul Stapp Takes a Lot of G’s
July 22nd, 2009
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Having just resumed posting after a brief run-in with a viral infection, I decided to kick things off with a video of one of my own personal hero’s: US Air Force Colonel John Paul Stapp. At a time when good human anatomical analogs did not exist, Stapp conducted many of the experiments that would lead to our present understanding of how the human body reacts to sudden and dramatic stresses.
Air Force flight surgeon John Paul Stapp subjected himself to a number of extreme experiments in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s in order to acquire data on the human body’s ability to withstand extreme forces including rapid deceleration, exposure to high speed winds and other hazards associated with jet aircraft.
His most dramatic (and dangerous) tests involved the use of a rocket sled which accelerated Stapp to just bellow the speed of sound before decelerating back to a standstill in a fraction of a second, subjecting Stapp to enormous G-forces. The forward facing configuration (known as “eyeballs out”) presents the very real danger of cardiac damage, which could even be fatal. Although Stapp was restrained by a specialized harness, this could not completely eliminate the cardiac danger.
Another very real hazard of such rapid deceleration is retinal detachment, which can cause permanent blindness. In one of Stapp’s deceleration experiments, he was left unable to see after the deceleration. Stapp feared that he would be left blind by the event, but the effect turned out to be temporary, as it was caused by bleeding into his interocular fluid.
In his later life, Stapp would become a major promoter of enhanced automotive safety. He chaired the John P Stapp Foundation for Automotive Safety and later worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the development of improved crash test methods.
In 1979 Stapp was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame and in 1991, Stapp was awarded the National Medal of Technology.
Stapp died in 1999 at age 89.
(Despite this video coming from the History Channel, it is actually fairly accurate)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Good Science, History, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I had heard of this, but didn’t know the guy’s name. Crazy. Hats off to Dr. Stapp though.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
The final test where he took 40+ G’s for a fraction of a second is impressive, but there’s also one where he wasn’t going quite as fast and just stopped dead when the sled hit a solid barrier. That one looks painful. The deceleration would not last long, but it practically looks like it would break your teeth out of your jaw.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 10:37 pm
And IIRC, he was in the sled the time ALL of the accelerometers were wired wrong. leading the Engineer in charge, Edward Murphy, to come up with the saying that would later become known as “Murphy’s Law”.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 am
A huge pair of stainless steel balls…that’s all I gota say about Stapp
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July 23rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
I was unaware that Dr. Stapp had died. I would have liked to have shaken his hand.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Buzzo: gee do I detect a little sarcasm directed (and rightfully so) at the History Channel? : )
That dust particles went through the box he was in and then through his flight suit is amazing. 630+ mph! Wow. Risk takers like Colonel Dr. Stapp are hard to find these days. His was an amazing generation. I remember seeing films of these tests, but never knew who was the crazy volunteer. I’ll raise my scotch to Stapp tonight.
DV28XL: the rumor is he got steel ball transplants. Though his eyeballs didn’t pop out, the other balls did!
drjim: I always wondered who/when/how Murphy’s law was initiated and why. Learn something new every day. Thanks. By the way, what’s the “IIRC” reference?
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July 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
If he proved that you could survive such an extreme crash stop, then why should anyone die in a 70mph stop? It would be so much less that it should be totally survivable with the right kind of seat and belts. People still do though.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Jonathan said:
Seat belts and the designs of seats in cars today do save many many lives and if you’re belted in right, then you have a very good chance of making it through extreme deceleration, but many people don’t bother to wear them.
Also, John Stapp was wearing the best restraints avaliable and they had restraints all across his body. In a car there is some level of compromise, because the straps have to be effective, but at the same time they have to be something reasonably comfortable, easy and fast to put on and take off, unobtrusive and so on. That’s why passenger cars don’t have the same restraints as fighter planes or race cars. If they did, they would just take too long to get into and out of.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
“IIRC” = “If I Recall Correctly”.
I’ve always installed “5 Point” belts and harnesses in my Hot Rods and Street Machines. Just something I got used to from my road racing days.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Here is the story of John Stapp and Murphy’s Law.
http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i5/murphy/murphy1.html
Bit of a long read, but very, very interesting.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Regarding any improperly setup accelerometers: They might have lacked the percice instrument measurements in such circumstances, but they still should have been able to get a pretty good idea of the forces just by applying some basic physics formulas to the known velocity of the sled and knowing the time and distance to come to a stop.
They had plenty of high speed cameras and the track was of known length. Also the rockets were of known thrust and they knew all the other major variables.
It shouldn’t have been too hard to work out the forces with at least a pretty good level of confidence.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Earl Wood, M.D., Ph.D., the investigator credited with inventing the high-altitude pressure suit worn by pilots and astronauts, as well as the human centrifuge, also died this died year March 18 in Rochester, Minn. He was 97. He too followed the same do it to yourself approach when he tested equipment, by being is own subject.
Between them Drs. Wood and Stapp were the leading flight surgeons of the last half of the twentieth century and defined the field of high load physiology in aviation.
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July 24th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
How cool is it that I found this website while googling my wife’s Uncle, Colonel John Paul Stapp?
Thanks for posting a video of a great American Hero!
I recommend Nick Spark’s book on Murphy’s Law and Colonel Stapp.
http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/content.php?id=
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July 28th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Captain Push said:
Your wife certainly has family tree to be proud of! I wish I could claim someone like John Stapp as a family member. I’m distantly related to Gregory Peck, but that’s about it. None of my close relations like aunts or unclse have contributed anything like Colonel Stapp.
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