F-16 Fighting Falcon News

August 25, 2003 (by Stefaan Vanhastel) - A recent study found that the ban on endurance sports for F-16 pilots can be lifted. The ban was issued years ago, when conventional wisdom taught that the lower blood pressure and heart rate of endurance athletes reduced a pilot's ability to whitstand G-forces.
Under postive G (as in Gravity) forces, blood drains from the brain towards the feet, causing tunnel vision and loss of consciousness in a couple of seconds. Pneumatic anti-G suits wrapped around a pilot's thighs and abdomen prevent the blooddrain by inflating at the onset of high G forces to squeeze them hard.
However, air pumps for anti-G suits did not react fast enough for the F-16, and several planes and pilots were lost in the early 1980's. The Air Force quickly commissioned a study to determine how people react to high G forces. The study found that distance runners blacked out sooner than other groups, due to their lower blood pressure and heart rate. Weightlifters, bodybuilders, and even smokers fared better than runners, since their clogged arteries slowed the rush of blood away from the brain.

As a result of the study, the Air Force equipped its bases with weight-lifting equipment to buff-up pilots, and ordered F-16 crews to quit running, or cut back to no more than 10 miles per week. Time proved the faulty premise of the G study. The advent of newer anti-G suits brought about a loosening of restrictions against running. Operation Desert Storm finally vindicated running. As the demands of several dogfights a day took a toll on the pilots, distance runners and endurance athletes fared the best.