SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — When Air Force or private sector leaders want to explore how human beings endure the stresses of high altitude, strong acceleration or powerful disorientation, they can turn to the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
"This is the place," said Lt. Col. Nathan Maertens, Aerospace Physiology Division chief at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.
On Thursday, Wright-Patterson and Air Force leaders cut the ribbon on a series of chambers designed to test the effects of altitude on equipment and people at the Human Performance Wing. On hand was Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg, the Air Force surgeon general, and Maj. Gen. Healther Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), among others.