I've always wondered how the guys managed to fly above 10K altitude for extended periods of time in open cockpits without the benefit of oxygen.

1) It's friggin' cold!
2) The air is friggin' thin. And its not like they could take time to acclimatize; they spent most of their time on the ground at less than 1,000 feet above sea level.
3) I haven't read a single account of Aces being really big on running or other aerobic exercise, which would enhance lung capacity. Hell, most of these guys smoked!

So how did they manage it?

Same as pilots in WWII did it - oxygen. The late war high fliers carried some.

Would having the wind/air physically slammed into your face help? I mean in WW2 for the most part you were enclosed in the cockpit so that couldn't happen.

AFAIK they didnt advoid hypoxia.

They did suffer from terrible headaches, dizzyness, nausa etc.

In fact there are a number of Astronomical Observatories above 10K. From what I hear, they are not a nice place to work as the scientists also exhibit symptoms of Hypoxia. As patrick said towards the end they did carry Oxygen to enable them to get higher.

Obviously there must be a limit to the height you can go without oxygen but i think if they did go up regually enough the body would adapt somewhat.

I guess its just another indication as to how tough these guys were, and what they were willing to put up with.

Crews had those tanks with liquid oxygen, that evaporated in a bag, and they took sips from this bag through a tube. That was friggin' cold too.

Yeah, they didn't get to fly in the best conditions, but I still think I would rather have fought that way than in the trenches.

In my experiences, the faster the air hits you in the face, the harder it is to breath, no matter the altitude.

I suspect that as usual some very limited high flights have been blown up to be the "norm" when the facts are vastly different.

6 to 8 k I bet was alot more normal than the 10-20 k flights some speak of.

You have that right. I did a SkyDive this Sunday and free falling at 120 MPH from 14,000 ft, it was hard to breath. You sort of resist air rammed into your nose and you surely do not want your mouth open!

Yes they suffered and later had O2 tanks with them as others stated.

Also, combat did not last long at high altitudes, they quickly descended to much lower levels. Do to aircraft performance and pilot fatigue.

My guess is thermal underwear...I thought they didnt like oxygen because the tendancy for them to blow up when struck by high velocity lead projectiles?

*shrug*

I dunno'

I don't think many aircraft flew with oxygen - certainly not in the RAF. I remember reading that some Dolphin squadrons experimented with it and found it helped greatly with alertness etc, but the aircrew were wary about the possibilities of the cylinders exploding if hit and so it wasn't something that was universally popular.

Cheers,

RD.