Two major policy decisions dramatically impacted requirements to accommodate women into combat aircraft. On 28 April 1993, the Secretary of Defense directed the services to open assignments in combat aircraft to women. This decision greatly expanded the number and types of aircraft that women could fly. Prior to this decision, female pilots and other female aircrew were restricted by directive to aircraft that did not directly engage in combat. The second significant decision impacting the woman pilot was a requirement that the new joint services aircraft for pilot training, the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS), be designed to accommodate 80% of US women (1). These size requirements were also adopted for the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter. Current military combat, trainer, and support type aircraft are generally designed to accommodate pilots who are 64 to 77 inches in stature with a sitting height of 34 to 40 inches. When applied to the aircraft cockpit, ejection seat and crew-mounted life support equipment, this design criteria allows approximately 90% of US males to meet size requirements, while only 40% of US females are tall enough to meet the requirements (3,9). The expansion to the size envelope to accommodate 80% of US females will significantly increase the number of women who qualify for flying training. These two decisions--allowing women to fly combat aircraft and greatly increasing the aircrew size and stature ranges that the aircraft will need to accommodate-- present a unique challenge to aircraft and life support equipment development, particularly the development of G-protective equipment and evaluations of female acceleration tolerances.


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