Web Resources - Aviation Medicine
Keith Nockels
On 17th December 1903, at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright carried out the first powered flight. To mark the centenary of that flight, here are some websites on flight, and aviation/aerospace medicine.
The First Flight site at http://firstflight.open.ac.uk/ is an Open University ‘visual science environment’, and includes information on many other pioneers of flight besides the Wrights. The site includes a simulator of the Wright Brothers’ aircraft, which I crashed.
The Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company is a virtual museum with online exhibits, devoted to the Wright Brothers, and is at http://www.first-to-fly.com/. This is a wealth of information about the brothers’ experiments, with information about the planes and kites that they built. Their six experimental aircraft are also being built for real, and will be exhibited in Dayton, Ohio, where the Wright family lived. There is a national memorial to the brothers at the site where they first flew, and there is information about this at http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/
Time magazine also have a site devoted to 100 years of flight, at http://www.time.com/time/2003/flight/. This has information on other pioneers of flight, including Amelia Earhart, the first person to repeat Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing, as well as pioneers of commercial, military and space flight.
The NASA site has a lot of information on space travel, the effects of space on humans, and on aeronautics and the history of flight, at http://www.nasa.gov. Part of the site is for children and has experiments and activities.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Le Petit Prince, has a ‘site officiel’ at http://www.saint-exupery.org/, with information on his life and writings. The site is maintained by the Société pour l’Œuvre et la Mémoire d’Antoine Saint-Exupéry. Why is he included here? He was a pilot, who flew mail planes to South America and North Africa, and who went missing while flying a military plane in 1944. Much of his writing involves beautiful images of flying, and the story of Le Petit Prince includes an aviator who crashes in the desert. This brings me to sites about aviation medicine.
Aviation medicine is ‘the study and practice of medicine as it applies to physiologic problems peculiar to aviation’ (Online Medical Dictionary, accessed 6th August 2003 at http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/omd). Aerospace medicine seems to be the preferred term in North America.
First, three associations
Aerospace Medical Association (USA) - http://www.asma.org
The site includes a Powerpoint presentation about what aerospace medicine involves, including a bit of (undated) history; publications for the flying public and physician, and a few links.
Aviation Health Institute (UK) - http://www.aviation-health.org
An organisation based in Oxford, and concerned with the health and well being of air passengers. Site includes news and information on DVT, air rage, fear of flying, among other things. Also includes Contraindications to air travel, for practitioners and information about the Victims of Air Related DVT Association, a campaign group.
Royal College of Nursing In-flight Nurses Assocation (UK) - http://www.rcn-ifna.org.uk/
If you are unfortunate enough to be taken ill on holiday abroad and need to be ‘repatriated’, health staff will accompany you on your journey, including a flight nurse. The site includes information about the role of that nurse, as well as site areas for RCN members and people interested in joining.
Now, a journal and some books
Federal Air Surgeon’s Medical Bulletin (US) - http://www.cami.jccbi.gov/AAM-400A/fasmb.html
Journal published for aviation medical examiners and others interested in aviation safety. Site includes links to FAA Technical Reports and Pilot Safety Brochures, and aero medical certification case studies, as well as the text of the journal itself..
United States Naval Flight Surgeon’s Manual - 3rd ed., 1991, (US) http://www.vnh.org/FSManual/fsm91.html
Part of the Virtual Naval Hospital site. Covers physiology of flight, as well as medical conditions relating to flight, and a chronology of aerospace medicine in the US Navy. Aimed more at practitioners working in isolation and also includes space flight.
United States Naval Flight Surgeon Handbook - 2nd ed., 1998, (US) http://www.vnh.org/FSHandbook/FSH97.html
Also part of the Virtual Naval Hospital site.
And now, some other things
How does being in space affect your brain? Look at http://www.sfn.org/content/Publications/BrainBriefings/brains_in_space.html for the answers!
The effect of microgravity on other parts of the body is explored at http://www.microgravity.ac.uk/MRC%20Workshop%20default%20page.htm, in a report of an MRC conference on ‘Space for health or health for space?’. This site also has information on some experiments carried out in space.
The British Airways Online Medical and Health Information site at http://www.britishairways.com/travel/HEALTHINTRO/public/en includes information on what to consider before, during and after a flight, including cabin air quality, cosmic radiation, DVT, and fear of flying.
You can find the Department of Health Advice on Travel Related DVT (UK) at http://www.doh.gov.uk/dvt/
Bon voyage!
Keith Nockels
Site Services Manager
Medical Library
University of Aberdeen
Direct telephone: (01224) 552740