G-Suit Design

This is another request for help with the look of a character. The brief was a G-suit suitable for a fighter pilot, worn as a basic flight suit or an undersuit for a pressure suit or pilot's coveralls.

As a vehicle manoeuvres, an unprotected pilot suffers acceleration forces that push the blood into the lower extremities, starving the brain of its blood supply and the oxygen it contains. The basic principle of the G-suit is a piece of clothing that is fitted with inflatable bladders that apply pressure to the pilot during high-accelleration manoeuvres. A switch in the cockpit (usually mounted beneath the pilot's seat)senses accelleration and triggers when a certain limit is reached. This operates a valve that releases compressed air into the inflatable bladders in the suit. This tightens the fabric of the suit to apply pressure to the pilot's body, preventing the blood from draining out of the upper torso and head. The effect is said to resemble being squeezed by a giant's hand.

1950s-era G-suits wera all-over items, working on arms and upper torso as well as the legs and lower torso. Current G-suits (also referred to as "speed jeans") work on legs and lower torso only. This design is a whole-body suit that incorporates seat pads and knee-guards for pilots that may be subject to particulary extreme conditions. Because of the job it does, the G-suit tends to be extremely tough, and is a favourite clothing-of-choice for people that live in the rougher parts of the galaxy.

FaerieFyre

Great idea and very nice artwork on this one. On a side note, it wouldn't necessarily be applicable to the Star Wars universe because of inertial dampener technology. Though, perhaps it may have been used before that technology was developed (WAY Old Republic).

Just a thought...

sfgameruk

You are perfectly right, of course, but I was always a bit of a belt'n'braces man when it came to protecting a pilot in tricky situations, when a hit could cause one or more systems to fall over.

My argument is that another classic SW design, the TIE Fighter, has the cockpit at the very centre of the vehicle's centre of gravity, so that rapid turns have a low impact on the inertial budget of the pilot. This is an inertial mitigation trick that assumes that the inertial damper technology is not 100% effective. A G-suit is a similar trick that has a relatively low systems growth penalty (i.e. it is a fairly simple gadget to add).

Inertial damping also seems to have lag times - setting your deflectors on double front and passing through the magnetic shelds causes a noticeable shake to the X-Wings. it works for dramatic effect, but it does hint of something happening to the physics of the Universe.

It's an Old Pilots vs Bold Pilots, thing.

RobinH

Curiosity killed the cat. What kind of cat was it? Was it fluffy or short-haired? What was it curious about...?