This Month in Aerospace Medicine History: December

DECEMBER 2000

Color vision testing (Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aeromedical Institute, Oklahoma City, OK): “Two practical color vision tests were developed and validated for use in screening Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) applicants for work at en route center or terminal facilities. The development of the tests involved careful reproduction/simulation of color-coded materials from the most demanding, safety-critical color task performed in each type of facility. … The tests were evaluated using 106 subjects with normal color vision and 85 with color vision deficiency. The en route center test, named the Flight Progress Strips Test (FPST), required the identification of critical red/black coding in computer printing and handwriting on flight progress strips. The terminal option test, named the Aviation Lights Test (ALT), simulated red/green/white aircraft lights that must be identified in night ATC tower operations. … The FPST was validated by direct comparison of responses to strip reproductions with responses to the original flight progress strips and a set of strips selected independently. Validity was high; Kappa = 0.91 with original strips as the validation criterion and 0.86 with different strips. The light point stimuli of the ALT were validated physically with a spectroradiometer. The reliabilities of the FPST and ALT were estimated with Chronbach’s α as 0.93 and 0.98, respectively. … The high job-relevance, validity, and reliability of these tests increases the effectiveness and fairness of ATCS color vision testing.”¹

Predicting airsickness (University of Southampton, Southampton, UK): “There is little quantitative information that can be used to predict the incidence of airsickness from the motions experienced in military or civil aviation. This study examines the relationship between low-frequency aircraft motion and passenger sickness in short-haul turboprop flights … A questionnaire survey of 923 fare-paying passengers was conducted on 38 commercial airline flights. Concurrent measurements of aircraft motion were made on all journeys, yielding approximately 30 h of aircraft motion data. … Overall, 0.5% of passengers reported vomiting, 8.4% reported nausea… and 16.2% reported illness … during flight. Positive correlations were found between the percentage of passengers who experienced nausea or felt ill and the magnitude of low-frequency lateral and vertical motion, although neither motion uniquely predicted airsickness. The incidence of motion sickness also varied with passenger age, gender, food consumption and activity during air travel. No differences in sickness were found between passengers located in different seating sections of the aircraft, or as a function of moderate levels of alcohol consumption. … The passenger responses suggest that a useful prediction of airsickness can be obtained from magnitudes of low frequency aircraft motion.”²

DECEMBER 1975

What happened this year? In 1975, the December issue was a wrap-up of the year. There were no scientific articles, but the journal was filled with: a list of Past Presidents from 1929–1975, identifying those who were deceased; the Constitution and By-Laws, most recently amended April 29, 1975, and consisting of nine total pages in the journal; a Directory of Members that included a key for coding the “Medical and Scientific Specialty Data” of those members; a list of Constituent Associations (a total of six) and Affiliated Organizations (a total of five); a list of Corporate Members (a total of 49) with their designated points of contact and mailing addresses; a list of Standing Committees (a total of 15, including the Executive Committee) with their chairmen and members listed; a list of recipients of all 11 association awards from award inception through 1975; a list of all Fellows grouped by election year, Honorary Fellows, of which there were 10, and all current Associated Fellows, filling an entire page of the journal; a list of Honorary Members, also being an extensive list; Wives’ Wing Officers; and an index consisting “of five parts: (1) Tables of Contents for Vol. 46, January through November 1975, (2) Index to Scientific Articles by subject and author; (3) Index to Abstracts by subject and author; (4) Index to Departments and News Sections by subject and name; and (5) Index to FAA Questions and Answers by subject.”³

DECEMBER 1950

Threat of cosmic radiation (Army Medical Service, Field Research Laboratory, Fort Knox, KY): “Recent discussions, on aero medical problems of space travel by Armstrong, Haber and Strughold have brought up the question as to biological effects of cosmic radiation encountered in the stratosphere and in space travel. The possibility of such effects is discussed in detail.

“Using recent discoveries in cosmic ray physics (heavy nuclei in the primary radiation, explosion stars at high altitudes, meson production, origin) and the report of Hess and Eugster on cosmic radiation and its biological effects, it is shown that at these altitudes biological effects of cosmic radiation have to be expected.

“By comparing the cosmic ray events in high altitudes with data obtained in recent radium-poisoning investigations, a first rough estimation of the magnitude of cosmic ray effects is made.

“For further investigations it is proposed to study: 1. Biological effects of star events, fission processes and meson processes. 2. General biological effects and specific biological effects (genetic effects), on drosophila, seeds, fungi and protein solutions exposed, several times if necessary, at high altitudes. 3. Correlated with 1 and 2, the effects in deep mines.”⁴