Why will Lynx flight participants wear a pressure suit?
The Lynx has a pressurized sealed cockpit and in a normal flight, there will be no need for a pressure suit. It is what pilots call a “shirt sleeve” environment. However, in the history of civil and government aviation, space and high altitude flight programs,[] there have been incidents in which cabin pressure was lost that resulted in fatalities. Early in our design, we decided that for safety reasons, flight participants would wear pressure suits as a safety back up. It gives them one more line of defense. Q: How does the suit influence the Lynx design? The presence of the suit influences the design of the ship. As noted earlier, you have to have room for the suit. But, you also have to design all of the switches, latches and controls to be operated by a gloved hand. This means they have to be larger, and spaced further apart. It was a design choice that we made early on to enhance the safety of the participants and we’re glad we made the decision.
