Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 2
63
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[figure]
MC-2 partial-pressure suit (seen on pilot Francis Gary Powers)
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advanced gear for the U-2 pilots. David Clark expert Joseph Ruseckas then developed a complex life-support system, which was the first partially pressurized “spacesuit” for keeping humans alive for lengthy periods at ultrahigh altitudes. The effort to provide a safe environment for pilots at high altitudes also involved the Firewel Company of Buffalo, New York, which pressurized the U-2 cockpit to create an interior environment equivalent to the air pressure at an altitude of 28,000 feet. The system was designed so that, if the interior cockpit pressure fell below the 28,000-feet level, the pilot’s suit would automatically inflate. In either case, he could obtain oxygen only through his helmet.³⁴
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³⁴ Ibid., chap. 5, p. 19 (TS Codeword).
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Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25