WEBVTT

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(dramatic music)

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- These were unpressurized aircraft

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and the cockpits were open,

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and so they were exposed

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to wind, temperature extremes, vibration.

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And as the higher the
Airmen flew, they began

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to experience a lower
concentration of oxygen in the air.

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That and the fact that

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you're flying a very simple machine,

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which is a very new
technology, that the body

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of knowledge about
aviation, and how to fly,

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and what to do, is brand new.

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So you are at the cutting edge

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of developing this new technology.

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- The School of Aerospace Medicine is

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about 100 years old, just shy.

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And the Air Force noticed

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that there were a lot

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of pilots who were dying in crashes.

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And so, physicians were taken

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and they were given extra training

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in the unique stressors

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that pilots were exposed to.

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And then research had to
be done in those areas

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so that you could understand
some of those stresses better.

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And that research helped
the flight surgeons

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then set standards.

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- So the early years

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of the School of Aerospace
Medicine were focused

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on the challenges that were given

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to them by Theodore Lyster,

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which was, see to the
efficiency of the pilots.

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And the focus was mainly,
how do we select someone

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who has the right stuff to be a pilot?

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During the World War II era,

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we were training thousands, and thousands,

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of flight surgeons, and the
thousands of the flight nurses,

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and the air evacuation technicians,

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and the other disciplines,
that come through the school.

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The next thing that the
School and Laboratory focused

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on was, how can we ensure that the pilots,

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and air crew members, are able to perform

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at their highest capability
while being exposed

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to continual threats to their performance.

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As the Air Force began
pushing the envelope

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on what the aircraft could deliver,

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that was a constant
demand on the human inside

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that aircraft to match the complexity,

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and the physical demands, that
aircraft was now demanding.

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Very quickly we were pushing the envelope,

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with our technology, of
what the human could do.

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So the effort required the
physical demands of the air crew

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to stay alert, and awake,

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while they're pulling g's,
requires these men, and women,

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to be elite athletes.

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- If you look at what we do,

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we do fundamental biological sciences.

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We use the physical sciences,
engineering disciplines.

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All that coming together
to understand, how does

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that impact human performance?

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And mainly, how do you enable, enhance,

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and sustain the Airmen
in those operations?

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- What can we do to help them even improve

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their performance, even more,
above what the baseline is?

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And that gives the Air Force an advantage

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over any adversaries that
we might have in the future.

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- [Alden] While you're doing

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those great, complex,
physically demanding activities,

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we want you to be doing
15 different activities in

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your mind as you're managing
the aircraft instrumentation.

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And as you're using that instrumentation

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to acquire, and maintain,
situational awareness not just

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outside your aircraft
but miles, and miles,

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around your aircraft.

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The mission here at the School,

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and the 711th Human Performance Wing, is

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to optimize the performance of all Airmen,

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wherever they are in their mission

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so that we can ensure a rapid
return to duty of our Airmen.

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We can ensure the most
efficient use of resources,

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and that we can ensure
the effective delivery

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of our mission.

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The Airmen is the essential component

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of all of our weapons systems
and all of our operations.

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- So historically in Wright-Patt,

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the Human Effectiveness
Directorate has been the center

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of research activities
related to human performance.

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After the BRAC,

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which was in 2005, the
other mission units,

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mainly the School of Aerospace Medicine

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and the Human Systems
Directorate was brought up here,

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and that made the 711th
Human Performance Wing.

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So we have three mission units
where we have the schoolhouse

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plus the Technical
Directorate that existed here,

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that used to be called the
Human Effectiveness Directorate.

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And then we also brought

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in the Human Systems
Integration Directorate,

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or Human Performance Directorate.

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Those three combined,
create a power house here

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in the era of human performance.

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- So as we look to the
future, we will go more,

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and more, to unmanned aircraft.

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And we'll go more, and more,
to other support functions

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in the cyber intel,

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heavily cognitively-demanding,
career fields.

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That will require that same
focus on human performance.

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- The Human Performance
Wing is there to ensure

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that the Airmen can operate

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in those environments.

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We make sure that those Airmen
can operate very efficiently

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and very effectively.