About the German O2 masks, not as bad as the French Gas Mask were one had to urinate, yes pee, on the air bag to make it work. Seems ones own urine countered the effects of the gas. They even had one called the " Tampon T " !

Talk about having a pissy day!

Actually urine soaked fabric was a common expeedient protection against many of the non absorbing Gasses.

Hello,

@ Five digits: Lol i guess "all those" sims begin to blur my mind, just corrected it ahem lol.
I certainly would also like to see airships made by the other team in the sim that may not be named, but then they have their hands full with correcting and adding historical stuff like missing a/c types, skins, railyards and the like, at least now. The free downloadable L30 Zepp. for the sim is very good, but it cannot be used in campaign, only quick flight or canned missions - and "besides" the creator would not want it to be used in a commercial sim - so i guess officially it may not be used in phase 3. It certainly is not part of the sold package.

Back to RoF, yes RoF, did i say how i would like to see a Zeppelin here etc. etc.
The tethered balloons are already great, now if they would be wound down during an attack, and the observer jumped out (like in the 15-year-old RedBaron) it would be even better.

I guess i will refrain from french "Tampon T" masks, in comparison being a bit dizzy is probably not so bad, and might spare you some bottles of beer.

Greetings,
Catfish

The reason I mentioned the cold is that freezing air temperature makes it hard to breathe.

Even at low altitudes, freezing temperatures makes breathing an unpleasant experience. The solution is to take shallower breaths, which mixes the warm air in one's lungs with the cold coming in - but that's not a very good technique if one is desiring to get as much as the air as possible to squeeze out the lower oxygen content.

And yeah, I've been in sub-zero temperatures many times. That's why I live in Alabama!

Hmm, I have been in -52 celsius and not having any breathing difficulties (except that it was unpleasant, but my lungs didnt freeze or anything). Tought that was at "ground lvl" To make it more describing -25 celsius and -52 celsius "feels" about same. You dont "feel" that extra cold (but ofcourse you freeze faster, etc)

Okay, for everyone NOT from Finland, it friggin' hurts to breath at those temperatures!



The thing is that one starts out at a nice 20 degrees C and one atmosphere and then gets slapped with sub-freezing temperatures.

Impossible to deal with? Nope, but unpleasant, especially for extended durations. Plus one can't overstate the ability of people to put up with things they have to. I was describing rucking in the Arabian desert to my wife and she asked how we did it - and the answer was simple: we just did, as we had to.

Those guys must have been eating aspirin like candy! Sing along night must have been painful to listen to with all those raspy voices!

Actually -52 C is very, very rare in Finland (anything under -40 is). I just happened to be in place where finnish subtemperature record was measured (and which still is coldest recorded temperature in finland).




I have seen people to freak out about under 0 C temperatures and people from "hot" countries to freak out in sauna where temperature is about 100 celsius. It is just about what people is used to to. Nothing what human body is able to

Taken from http://webs.lanset.com/aeolusaero/Articles/Oxygen%20Systems%20history--Pt1.htm :

Early History: World War One

Prior to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, there had been little if any concern with developing aviator oxygen systems. Although some research had been done on providing oxygen flasks for balloon pilots engaged in lighter-than-air altitude attempts (mostly in Europe, as part of a continuing tradition of medical interest in the effects of high altitude on balloonists), nothing in the way of an American aircraft oxygen system had been devised or even conceived in practical form.

The first flight of an aircraft using an purpose-provided oxygen system in fact seems to have occurred in 1913, when a French aviator (Georges Lagagneux) flew a Nieuport biplane to an altitude of 20,014 feet (this was 10 years after the internal combustion engine powered Wright Flyer took to the air in December of 1903).

American disregard for the possible importance of providing oxygen systems in aircraft disappeared almost overnight in August of 1914, when the new European war was declared. The rapid advances in aeronautical technology spurred onward by the new war resulted in successively faster and more powerful aircraft, able to fly higher and higher into the atmosphere. This, in turn quickly created awareness by the fledgling US Army medical service of the need to provide oxygen for pilots and aircrews.

This awareness came of practical experience with US aviators flying at higher altitudes (necessitated by the need to fly up beyond the range of ground fire) who needed oxygen to remain alert and be able to function reasonably well in their operation of aircraft. Reports of strange symptoms and seriously debilitating conditions (typical of hypoxia and including cyanosis, headache, weakened muscular tone, earache, vertigo, extreme lassitude) reached medical personnel in operational areas. Further strange, occasional, and unexplained losses of aircraft began to accumulate. It wasn’t long before the cause of most of these maladies was pinpointed as being attributable to the need for oxygen use for safe flight above 15,000 feet.

Germany was one of the earliest nations involved in the First World War to recognize and address the need by aviators of aircraft and dirigibles for supplemental oxygen. The great Zeppelin dirigibles, by virtue of their ability to fly at higher altitudes, were the first war craft outfitted with aircrew oxygen systems, which were at first of the conventional compressed gas type, contained in iron storage flasks. Soon, however, the heavy storage flasks were replaced by early liquid oxygen generating systems. These systems were devised and produced by the Draeger Company, a company long associated with respiratory and resuscitation equipment for mining use. Other systems were produced by the Ahrend and Heylandt Company. It wasn’t long before some higher flying German bombers and fighters were equipped with these small, lightweight liquid oxygen systems. Oxygen could be breathed from these small ‘personal’ liquid oxygen systems through use of a mouthpiece (frequently called a ‘pipe stem’) that could be held clenched in the mouth of an aviator. The tube providing the oxygen was attached (on the German systems) to a large rebreathing bag positioned nearer the unit than the ‘pipe stem’, so that although the oxygen flow rate was continuous, more of the gas could be saved and reused in the process that would have otherwise been wasted.

These German systems were carefully studied in the United States during the war, after specimens were recovered from downed German machines, and systems very similar in design to the original Draeger systems were soon devised and tested in American aircraft. It wasn’t long before several things became apparent. These were that the effects of cold at altitude frequently made it extremely difficult (and at best uncomfortable) to hold an oxygen ‘pipe stem’ in the mouth for a protracted period. This led to the design of a leather mask in which the small diameter rubber delivery hose could be inserted; the mask, it was felt, would succeed in both holding the tube in place near the mouth and (perhaps equally as important) provide substantially improved protection against the severe cold encountered in open cockpits at altitude.

Predictably, complaints were soon heard about how the use of a mask was ‘restrictive’ and would obstruct the wearer’s ability to move his head about, in search of a pursuing enemy aircraft. Others felt that the use of a mask would critically distract their attention during dogfighting. These objections were ultimately overcome, however, as the benefit of oxygen use became more widely acknowledged by fliers.

Further areas of study concerned regulation of the oxygen delivery, since originally the continuous flow oxygen systems had featured only a reducing valve that could be opened and closed. Some sort of ‘automatic’ pressure regulator would be a very desirable improvement in the system (if a successful design could be devised) and the need for a gauge to indicate oxygen supply remaining was also evident. During the war, the French came up with a system named after its creator, Dr. Paul Garsaux. This system used an aluminum ‘mask’ that could be shaped to conform somewhat to the wearer’s face and had inflatable face-sealing bladders to help insure a tight seal (it is interesting to note that the latest US Air Force oxygen masks incorporate a face-sealing bladder on the mask's face-seal, some 85 years after Garsaux's experiments with this feature!). The Garsaux system was tested in the USA and considered for adaptation to US biplanes, but was ultimately rejected owing to faults in the design that made it unreliable at certain times.

An improved Garsaux system addressed these deficiencies, but although tested in the USA, none of the improved Garsaux systems were acquired and used in US flying machines.

In Britain, British RFC research soon proved beyond question the many benefits of oxygen to pilots flying combat missions, so the question of whether oxygen systems were necessary or not was thereupon mooted, and effort was dedicated towards devising lighter, more dependable, and more comfortable oxygen breathing systems for aviators. Siebe, Gorman, and Company, English pioneers in the design and production of respiratory equipment for miners and divers, produced the first practical military aviation oxygen breathing system for the RFC, although it was somewhat heavy and had certain disadvantages. It used a rubber mask without inlet or outlet valving, and featured single or doubled flasks of compressed oxygen (500 or 1000 liters capacity). This system could support one or two men, but after a year of flight experience with this system, the RFC abandoned it and returned to their original system of providing each aircrewman with his own individual oxygen supply.

Not long after this, the "Dreyer Oxygen Equipment" system was developed by LC Geo. Dreyer of the RFC Medical Branch. Designed by Dreyer, after a cooperative RFC/French study of all the major military aviation oxygen delivery systems in use, the Dreyer oxygen system was adopted by the RFC and placed into production by the De Lestang Company in Paris (patient holder). The key to success in the Dreyer system was its use of an aneroid-controlled, automatic regulator design. This pressure-compensated delivery system was entirely automatic, being regulated entirely by the system and not by hand (as in the Siebe-Gorman system). Unfortunately, the system was so precise that each unit had to be manufactured entirely by hand, with the result that production output was limited and not rapid. American tests of the new Dreyer RFC system showed that it had some deficiencies, but that it was very, very rugged; a review of available systems by these same American researchers suggested that the United States should select and install the improved Dreyer system on American military aircraft.

Owing to the slow production of the Dreyer systems in France, in 1917 arrangements were made to manufacture and produce the improved Dreyer oxygen system. Upon consideration of this intent, it was clear that in order to rapidly mass produce the system in the USA, it would have to be completely redesigned. This proved no easy task in 1918, given the status quo of industry at that early time, however after a massive amount of study and preparation, the system was entirely reconfigured. The new American version of the Dreyer apparatus featured a leather and rubber mask in which a microphone was to be fitted, but it proved very unpopular due to various considerations that included the awkward size of the microphone, bulkiness, and placement of the components. Work done by the A.C. Clark Company on the improved Dreyer system resulted in a new reference to it as the ‘Clark-Dreyer System’ and many months after the studies began, complicated by extraordinarily perplexing developments, the system finally began to be produced and shipped to France for installation in American war planes.

When the Armistice was finally signed, fewer than 3000 sets of the ‘Clark-Dreyer System’ regulators and masks had been delivered to American AEF squadrons in France. By the time the war had ended for all combatants, oxygen had been permanently accepted as a necessary part of the life support equipment required by pilots to successfully fly and fight at altitude. Ultimately, however, historical research has seemingly demonstrated that few American combat aircraft flown in the war actually had been equipped with oxygen systems by war’s end.

As Glenn Sweeting has stated in his superb book, COMBAT FLYING EQUIPMENT, the problem of providing adequate oxygen breathing systems for military aviators in the First World War simply was too great for the amount of time available to devise a suitable system: "…it simply challenged the state of the art and came up short."

As a final note on First World War military oxygen breathing systems, it should be remarked that the systems devised in that extraordinarily compressed early "learning curve period" were not completely adequate, being given to failure and prone to faulty operation, which not infrequently resulted in a loss of both machines and men when the systems failed at higher than normal altitude. Had the war continued on into 1919 and beyond, there is little doubt that improvements would have resulted in far better systems reliability that existed at war’s end.