New gravity suit for Su-57 pilots ready for flight trials.

A new gravity suit for Su-57 pilots is ready for flight trials, Sergey Pozdnyakov, director-general of Zvezda scientific and production enterprise, the suit’s main designer, told TASS.

A Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet
(Credit: UAC)

"We have designed a full-size suit as a one-piece garment. It covers the hands and the better half of the body. Trials have shown that we fully meet all the g-tolerance standards. We will decide what to do next after the flight evaluation," Pozdnyakov said.

He did not clarify when the flight trials would start. The first models of gravity suits for the fifth-generation fighter jets, have already passed centrifuge tests.The first new gravity suits are unlikely to be delivered before 2019. Pozdnyakov said that five suits had already been handed over to the Sukhoi aircraft designer while the flight trials would last for about six months.

The Zvezda design bureau has also created new Kevlar light helmets for military pilots.

"We are making new helmets, an oxygen mask and an oxygen supply system. They are pilot products which are already undergoing flight evaluation," he explained.The new helmets are lighter. They are made of domestic Kevlar. "Such helmets protect pilots from secondary fragments like the ones when a lamp is broken. Naturally, the suit cannot protect pilots from bullets," Pozdnyakov said.

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