Risking your life for science #shorts #history

This is what it looks like when you pull 46.2 g's, or 46.2 times the force of gravity. And it looks like it sucks. This is John Paul Stapp. He started his career at the Aeromedical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center in Ohio. He was an officer and medical consultant in biophysics. He did things like tested oxygen systems for unpressurized aircraft up to 40,000 feet, and often used himself as a human test subject. In 1953, now an Air Force major, he was sent to the Holloman Air Force Base to work on deceleration studies, and the most famous one was Sonic Wind 1. This was a rocket-powered sled. It was designed to move on skids and stop really, really quickly, thanks to scoops on the underside of the sled that would dig into troughs of water to slow it really quickly. On December 10th of 1954, he hit a land speed record going 632 miles per hour, or 1,017 kilometers per hour, and he reached this speed in just five seconds. When he decelerated, he pulled 46.2 g's. And it was painful. The worst part of all his injuries was that his eyes flooded with blood because of all the burst capillaries. He actually thought he might have gone blind because his retinas had detached in the force of the deceleration, but it didn't. He gained his eyesight, but it never fully recovered. John Paul Stapp's work eventually fed into NASA's Mercury program. He was one of the first people really studying human factors that would eventually play into space flight. If you want to know more about how all of that came together, check out my book, Breaking the Chains of Gravity. Even after sustaining a lot of injuries in Sonic Wind 1, John Paul Stapp did want to go again and actually try to break Mach 1 in a rocket sled. He was deemed far too valuable for the risk. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe!