Click HerePosted on 04/16/2025 8:22:57 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
The new system came from a private/public innovation challenge aimed at women who fly jets and say they often won't drink water for hours to avoid the 'mess' of traditional relief systems.
Believe it or not, pilots relieving themselves mid-flight has become a national security issue.
For decades, many military pilots who heard nature’s call — particularly those who fly fighters and especially women in those planes — faced an unpleasant reality: use the decades-old ‘piddle packs’ or other devices designed for mid-flight peeing, hold it the whole way, or risk dangerous dehydration by drinking so little water that you never need to go.
But a new device, dubbed the Advanced Inflight Relief Universal System or AIRUS, developed through an Air Force innovation incubator program, may make it easier going for, well, going.
For as long as there have been planes in the sky, pilots in single-seat aircraft like fighter jets or others with ejection seats have had to unbuckle their harnesses and shimmy up from their seats to find a position that allowed for relief. In rare occasions, the urge to go has led to fatal accidents, including one A-10 pilot who failed to re-strap himself properly into his parachute after using a device to pee, only to be forced to eject later in the flight.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
Gatorade bottles always worked for me, lol.
Naw! Gatorade bottles are the best. Trailer Park boys...
I read twenty years ago about a female second seat pilot in an F-15 fighter-bomber in action over Afghanistan who was nicknamed “The Camel” for her awesome ability to hold her water without urinating.
Thanks for the additional detail. It was a long time ago, so I’m not surprised I didn’t remember it perfectly.
Mostly correct, but there will be humans flying aircraft for decades.
They wear a pressurized one piece flight suit.
No doubt but probably not fighter/bombers.
They can control and plan for food issues differently than liquids. I do. I know pilots often wont eat much before missions, and I would bet they pick safer plainer meals to avoid problems. I would, and I do. But you pee a lot more often than #2, thats why its more of an issue.
Dehydration seriously degrades mental capabilities. And they are deliberately operating that way.
Well, if Rickover ever deemed something a bad idea, it probably was.
In the book Skunk Works, they described how the U-2 pilots conducting the long range flights over the USSR are only things like steak and eggs before a flight for that very reason.
Likely female pilots have been evaluated on their curves for a while.
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