I had read somewhere (can’t remember)that Luftwaffe pilots used to take morphine by injection before taking off for missions.
Supposedly the word ,”assassin” is the derive of an Arab word “hashasin”...meaning hashish eater. Supposedly an 11 and 12 century secretive cult of political murderers would get zonked on hashish and that would allow them to do the evil that they did better.
So using psychostimulants is not new at all.
Doesn’t stop shrapnel or modern bullets, however.
Having had morphine, it’s something I would definitely NOT want to have on board while piloting an aircraft!