Earl Wood

Earl H. Wood (c. 1913 – March 18, 2009) was a physiologist who helped invent the G-suit.^[1]

Shortly after receiving an M.D. and PhD in physiology from the University of Minnesota medical school, Wood became a key member of a team at the Mayo Clinic that was tasked with helping military pilots and flight crew survive and function in high G-force environments. The solution the team arrived at is the G-suit, which has air bladders situated at the calves, thighs, and abdomen of the wearer. The bladders inflate as the G-force acting on the aircraft increase, constricting the wearer's arteries, hence increasing blood pressure and blood flow to the brain.

The G-suit was a superior solution to another alternative—a water-filled suit—being tested at the time, which was considered impractically heavy and cumbersome.

Wood himself regularly tested the flight suits, taking many turns in a centrifuge used for the purpose. He calculated that over his several hundred rides, he had lost consciousness for an aggregate of at least fifteen minutes (without any observed lasting damage).

The G-suit was adopted in the 1940s. The current models are based on the pattern Wood and his colleagues designed.

After his work on the G-Suit, Wood worked on techniques for measuring cardiac blood flow. He was granted a patent for an optical instrument that measures blood oxygen levels without taking blood.

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