John Stapp
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John Paul Stapp, M.D., Ph. D., Colonel, USAF (Ret.) (11 July 1910–13 November 1999) was a pioneer in studying the effects of acceleration and deceleration forces on humans. He was a colleague and contemporary of Chuck Yeager, and became known as the fastest man on earth [1]. He was something of a maverick known for thinking outside the box and considering everything that could possibly go wrong, hence also becoming known as “The Careful Daredevil”, despite his insistence on subjecting himself to extremely high g-forces (and other hazards) as an "ethical human guinea pig" for his various researches.
When he began his research in 1947, the aerospace conventional wisdom was a man would suffer fatally around 18 g. Stapp shattered this barrier in the process of his progressive work, experiencing more "peak" g-forces than any other human. Stapp suffered repeated and various injuries including broken limbs, ribs, and miscellaneous traumas which eventually resulted in lifelong lingering vision problems caused by permanently burst blood vessels in his eyes. In one of his final rocket-propelled rides, Stapp was subjected to 46.2 times the force of gravity (remarkably, a far higher deceleration rate was survived by the British Grand Prix driver David Purley). The aeronautical design changes this fundamental research wrought are widespread and hard to quantify, but fundamentally important.
Stapp was an inveterate collector of euphemisms and adages, kept a logbook of such, and the practice spread to his entire working group. Witty and charismatic and thus popular with the press and his staff, Stapp's team in particular, and its workplace subculture is also the clear originating source for the ubiquitous truism known as Murphy's law. There is no question, setting aside the specific murkiness of its attribution, that Stapp was its actual popularizer and probably framed its final form, first using the soon to be widespread term in his first press conference about Project MX981 in the phrase, "We do all of our work in consideration of Murphy's Law" in a nonchalant answer to a reporter. It was his team that, within an adaged-filled subculture, and while using a new device developed by reliability engineering expert Major Edward Murphy[2], coined the euphemistic phrase and began to use it in the months prior to that press conference. When the unfamiliar Law was clarified by a subsequent follow-up question, it soon burst into the press in various diverse publications, and got picked up by commentators and talk programs.
His ongoing legacy is still growing: Stapp's life was dedicated to aerospace safety in particular, and safety in general; he was one of the principal advocates of automotive safety belts, and he would work them into press-conference answers over many years and many press conferences. When President Johnson signed the mandantory seat-belt bill into law in 1966, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader stood by his side, much of the decades-long underlying popularization ground work and its supporting research had been laid by J.P. Stapp, who also stood in the room that day only a short distance away.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Dr. John Paul Stapp was born in Bahia, Brazil, the son of Reverend and Mrs. Charles F. Stapp.
His preliminary education was obtained at the Brownwood High School, Brownwood, Texas, and San Marcos Academy, San Marcos, Texas. Dr. Stapp received his bachelor's degree in 1931 from Baylor University, Waco, Texas; his master of art degree from Baylor in 1932; his doctorate in Biophysics from the University of Texas, Austin, Texas in 1940; and his medical degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1944. He interned for one year at St. Mary's Hospital, Duluth, Minnesota. Stapp also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Baylor University.
Dr. Stapp entered the Army Air Corps on 5 October 1944. On 10 August 1946, he was transferred to the Aero Medical Laboratory as project officer and medical consultant in the Bio-Physics Branch. His first assignment as a project officer included a series of flights testing various oxygen systems in unpressurized aircraft at 40,000 feet (12.2 km)[3]. One of the stickiest problems with high-altitude flight was the danger of the bends or 'Decompression sickness'. Stapp's work resolved that problem and a host of others[4] that lead to the next generation of high-altitude aircraft, as well as today's special forces HALO insertion techniques. He was assigned to the deceleration project in March 1947[5].
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[edit] Later life
In the years before his death, Dr. Stapp was president of the New Mexico Research Institute, headquartered in Alamogordo, New Mexico, as well as chairman of the annual Stapp Car Crash Conference. This event meets to study car crashes and determine ways to make cars safer. In addition, Dr. Stapp was honorary chairman of the Stapp Foundation, which is underwritten by General Motors and provides scholarships for automotive engineering students.
Dr. Stapp died peacefully at his home in Alamagordo at the age of 89, a remarkable show of longevity considering the extreme forces his body was subject to during his many years of research.
[edit] Works on effects of deceleration
As far back as 1945, service personnel realized the need for a comprehensive and controlled series of studies leading to fundamental concepts that could be applied to better safeguard aircraft occupants during a crash. The initial phase of the program, as set up by the Aero Medical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center, was to develop equipment and instrumentation whereby aircraft crashes might be simulated, and to study the strength factors of seats and harnesses, and human tolerance to the deceleration encountered in simulated aircraft crashes.
The crash survival research program was originally slated to be conducted near the Aero Medical Laboratory, but Muroc (now Edwards Air Force Base) was chosen because of the existence there of a 2,000-foot (610-m) track, built originally for V-2 rocket research. That particular program had been completed and was taken over for the deceleration research program to save building a new track.
Designed to Aero Medical Laboratory specifications and fabricated by Northrop Aircraft of Hawthorne, California, equipment was maintained and operated on service contract by the Northrop Company.
The "human decelerator" (dubbed the "Gee Whiz" by the scientists) consisted of a 1,500-pound (680-kg) carriage mounted on a 2,000-foot (610-m) standard gauge railroad track supported on a heavy concrete bed, and a 45-foot (14-m) mechanical braking system believed to be one of the most powerful ever constructed. Four slippers secured the carriage to the rails while permitting it to slide freely. At the rear of the carriage, 1,000-lbf (4-kN) rockets provided the propelling force. Braking was accomplished by 45 sets of brakes, each consisting of two clasping pairs of brake surfaces installed on the road bed between the rails. These brake pairs clasped the 11-foot (3.4-m)-long braking plates beneath the carriage chassis to apply the desired slowdown or deceleration. By varying the number and pattern of brake sets used and the number of carriage-propelling rockets, it was possible to control the deceleration.
The first run on the rocket sled took place on 30 April 1947 with ballast. The sled ran off the tracks. The first human run took place the following December. Instrumentation on all of the early runs was in the developmental stage, and it was not until August 1948 that it was adequate to begin recording. By August 1948, 16 human runs had been made, all in the backward facing position. Forward facing runs were started in August 1949. Most of the earlier tests were run to compare the standard Air Force harnesses with a series of modified harnesses, to determine which type gave the best protection to the pilot.
By 8 June 1951, a total of 74 human runs had been made on the decelerator, 19 with the subjects in the backward position, and 55 in the forward position. Dr. Stapp, one of the most frequent volunteers on the runs, sustained a fracture of his right wrist during the runs on two separate occasions.
Dr. Stapp's research on the decelerator had profound implications for both civilian and military aviation. For instance, the backward-facing seat concept, which was known previously, was given great impetus by the officer's crash research program, which proved beyond a doubt that this position was the safest for aircraft passengers and required little harness support, and that a human can withstand much greater deceleration than in the forward position. As a result, all of the Air Force Military Air Transportation Service (MATS) were equipped with this type of seat. Commercial airlines were made aware of these findings. The British Royal Air Force also installed it on many of their military transports.
As a result of Dr. Stapp's findings, the acceleration requirement for fighter seats was increased considerably up to 32 g (310 m/s²) since his work showed that a pilot could walk away from crashes when properly protected by harnesses if the seat does not break loose.
The "side saddle" or sideways-facing harness was also developed by Dr. Stapp. The new triangular shaped harness gave vastly increased protection to fully-equipped paratroopers sitting side-by-side in Air Force aircraft. It was made of nylon mesh webbing, fit snugly over the shoulder facing the forward part of the aircraft, and protected the wearer from the force of crash impacts, takeoffs and landing bumps. It withstood a crash force of approximately 8,000 pounds of force (36 kN) at 32 g (310 m/s²) and was developed to replace the old-fashioned lap belts which gave inadequate protection to their wearers.
By riding the decelerator sled himself, Dr. Stapp demonstrated that a human can withstand at least 45 g (440 m/s²) in the forward position, with adequate harness. This is the highest known acceleration voluntarily encountered by a human. Dr. Stapp believed that the tolerance of humans to acceleration had not yet been reached in tests, and is much greater than ordinarily thought possible.
Also developed by Dr. Stapp as an added safety measure was an improved version of the currently used shoulder strap and lap belt. The new high-strength harness withstood 45.4 g (445 m/s²), compared to the 17 g (167 m/s²), which was the limit that could be tolerated with the old combination. Basically, the new pilot harness added an inverted "V" strap crossing the pilot's thighs added to the standard lap belt and shoulder straps. The leg and shoulder straps and the lap belt all fastened together at one point, and pressure was distributed evenly over the stronger body surfaces, hips, thighs and shoulders, rather than on the solar plexus, as was the case with the old harness.
[edit] Other works
[edit] Wind-blast experiments
Dr. Stapp also participated in wind-blast experiments, in which he flew in jet aircraft at high speeds to determine whether or not it was safe for a pilot to remain with his aircraft if the canopy should accidentally blow off. Dr. Stapp stayed with his aircraft at a speed of 570 mph (917 km/h), with the canopy removed, and suffered no injurious effects from the wind blasts. He also supervised research programs in the fields of human factors in escape from aircraft and human tolerance to abrupt acceleration and deceleration.
[edit] Car safety
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During his work at the Holloman Air Force Base, Stapp realized almost as many Air Force pilots died in car crashes than in plane crashes. Stapp started a car-crash safety program, advocating features as seatbelts, and padded dashboards [6][7]. He also was a pioneer in the field of crash test dummies [8].
[edit] Stapp´s law
Stapp is credited with creating Stapp's Law (or Stapp's Ironic Paradox) during his work on the project.
[edit] Awards
In 1991, Stapp was awarded the National Medal of Technology, "for his research on the effects of mechanical force on living tissues leading to safety developments in crash protection technology".
[edit] See also
- Murphy's law
- Nick T. Spark — researcher/producer who researched the real story of Murphy's Law.
- Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr. — the law's namesake.
[edit] References
- Biography of Dr. John P. Stapp. Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs Office, Edwards Air Force Base. Retrieved on 4 June, 2006.
- USAF People. The Air Force Museum, Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Retrieved on 4 June, 2006.
