A 4 foot cubic chamber with thin aluminum walls has been built to sim¬ulate the thermal surroundings of the crew of a hypersonic vehicle re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The walls are heated with quartz tube infra-red lamps mounted on reflectors 5 inches from the chamber's external surfaces. The temperature of each wall is controlled independently with manually operated relays. Wall temperatures may be programmed to rise as rapidly as 100°F per minute. Air temperature within the chamber rises passively as a result of natural convection induced by the chamber walls. Preliminary investigations of tolerance to peak wall temperatures as high as 430°F are summarized, and a more detailed investigation of human physiological and psychological performance during a 400° peak exposure is described. Results of the latter indicate that rather large changes in cabin temperature of limited length may have small enough effect on pilot performance that they may be included in design of air and space vehicles, particularly in cases where significant savings in weight may be achieved.
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