Stratonauts

Introduction.- The Atmosphere.- The Problems.- Pressure Suit History.- The Ancient Would-Be Stratonauts.- The Early War Years.- The Exploration Years.- The Experimental Pilots.- The U2 Stratonauts.- The Blackbird Stratonauts.- The Long Wing Stratonauts.- Other Unique High Altitude Aircraft.- Modern Aeronauts.- Qualifications & Training.

"Dutch" Von Ehrenfried has worked in both the spaceflight and aviation fields for about 25 years, including as a stratonaut himself. He was a NASA Flight Controller in Mission Control for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Missions and also worked on some of the experiments that went into Skylab from an Earth Resources experiment standpoint. He worked in the NASA Headquarters Space Station Program Office for about 10 years and the FAA Aviation Safety Office for a year.

In addition to being a pilot, his high altitude flying experience came about because he was also an Apollo Pressure Suit Test Subject and had a lot of experience in both Air Force and NASA space suits. This experience required him to perform a lot of physiological tests in centrifuges, vacuum chambers, zero g aircraft, etc. In addition, Von Ehrenfried has a lot of experience working with scientists on Apollo, which gave him the knowledge needed to translate scientific requirements into flight operations. Consequently, he became the first Mission Manager and sensor operator on the high altitude RB-57F Earth Resources Aircraft and worked with scientists to determine how the aircraft sensor platform would be able to acquire their data, planning the missions and operating the sensors in flight mostly in 60,000 -70,000 foot altitudes.