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Old July 10th 06, 12:38 AM posted to sci.space.history
Gene DiGennaro
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Posts: 73
Default identify this spacesuit ?

SR-71 suits are David Clark S-1030 suits I believe. Like Henry has said
it is a distant relative of the AP22/S full pressure suit of the X-15
program. Likewise the Gemini G4C is derived from that pioneering suit.
I think the current LES pumpkin suit is based on the S-1030 as well.
Interesting that David Clark wrote the book on practical high altitude
pressure suits but as far as I know, aside from Gemini's spacewalking
suits, they never fielded an EVA suit. That has been the realm of
Hamilton Std ( now Sundstran).

Gene DiGennaro
Baltimore, Md.


Henry Spencer wrote:
In article rs.com,
mike flugennock wrote:
I couldn't tell you for sure, but the SR71 pilot's gear looks
suspiciously like the David Clark G4C, used in Gemini...


If memory serves, the operational SR-71 crews originally used a slight
variant of the Gemini suits.

David Clark also made the X-15 suits, which went through one major design
revision and several smaller ones. The current shuttle ascent/descent
suits (which replaced the partial-pressure suits used for a while after
Challenger) are distant derivatives of the X-15 suits, as were the final
SR-71 suits.
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