The physiological and performance effects of wearing U.S. Army aviator NBC individual protective equipment (IPE) were evaluated in the USAARL UH-60 research flight simulator. Sixteen male aviators flew the simulator in four test conditions: standard flight suit and cool cockpit, standard flight suit and hot cockpit, NBC IPE and cool cockpit, and NBC IPE and hot cockpit. The hot condition had a WBGT of 30.6 deg C, the cool 17.9 deg C. Rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, and heart rate were monitored and showed significant increases for the NBC hot condition compared with the other three. There was a significant degree of dehydration in the hot NBC condition. Seven subjects failed to complete the sortie in the NBC hot condition, with a mean survival time of 298 minutes. All subjects flew for the target 6 hours in the other conditions. Simulator flight performance showed significant impairment in the hot NBC condition. There was little evidence of a reduction in flight performance with time. Six crashes occurred in NBC IPE, one in the standard flight suit. A performance assessment battery also was undertaken before, and at regular intervals during flight. The battery showed no effect of condition, though it was sensitive to increasing time on each test day. A subjective questionnaire assessment showed increasing fatigue with time, and that all conditions produced significantly more fatigue than baseline with the worse being for NBC hot....Chemical defense, Psychological stress, Psychological testing, Psychological performance, Heat stress, Aircrew protective ensembles, Physiology, Helicopter, Heart rate.


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