The effect of an anti-ballooning G-suit and a buttstrap G-suit on G-tolerance

The present USAF G-suit has two features that may limit its effectiveness: with inflation, the G-suit bladders balloon away from the subject, and there is no compression of the subject´s buttocks. A standard G-suit was modified to eliminate these two potentially negative features. This study evaluated three different G-suits, the standard cutaway G-suit (CSU-13B/P), a standard G-suit modified to prevent bladder ballooning (antiballooning G-suit), and an antiballooning G-suit with a buttstrap (buttstrap G-suit), and their effect on +Gz tolerance. The buttstrap G-suit increased relaxed G-tolerance 0.45 G (p=0.017) over the standard and antiballooning G-suits. Subjects stated that the buttstrap G-suit enhanced and facilitated the performance of the straining maneuver compared with standard G-suit. In conclusion, the buttstrap G-suit has been shown to be a more effective G-protective device than the present standard G-suit