Aero-Medicine

> After future battles like Midway and the Solomons, Navy ambulance planes will scout the seas for hundreds of miles in search of casualties.

>The Army is now training two squadrons of huge, long-distance hospital planes. These planes will be assisted by another squadron of lighter air ambulances which will whisk wounded soldiers away from points close to the front lines to points where they can be shifted to the larger planes. Purpose: to assure U.S. soldiers of treatment at a fully equipped hospital during the precious first hours after severe injury, when chances for recovery are doubled or tripled.

These remarkable examples of the use of planes for wartime medical purposes were described last fortnight at a meeting of the Aero Medical Association in Indianapolis. Also discussed were some special medical problems due to flying. The meeting learned that:

> If a flyer bails out at 35,000 to 40,000 feet and pulls his rip cord at once, he will probably suffocate in the thin-aired substratosphere during the first of the 24 minutes it takes him to float to earth. But if he holds his breath for 30 seconds and plummets a while before opening his parachute, he will retain consciousness.

> Analysis of 300 recent crack-ups shows that the accident rate was one-third higher among pilots who had slight physical defects which were known but not considered serious enough to incapacitate them for flying.

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