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Alice King Chatham (March 28, 1908 – July 8, 1989) was an American sculptor who worked for the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
, and their contractors to design helmets,
oxygen masks An oxygen mask is a mask that provides a method to transfer breathing oxygen gas from a storage tank to the lungs. Oxygen masks may cover only the nose and mouth (oral nasal mask) or the entire face (full-face mask). They may be made of plastic, ...
and other
personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elect ...
. The equipment she designed was used both on humans and on a variety of animal test subjects.


Career


Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Alice King was a graduate of the
Dayton Art Institute The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...
. In 1942, she was contacted by officials at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) near
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
to help design breathing masks for pilots. They sought her out because they wanted someone with a sculpture background to be involved with the design. She began work at the Aero Medical Laboratory at WPAFB, where she helped design and build the first successful pressurized breath masks for pilots operating planes above . The pressurized mask was important to keep pilots from passing out at high altitude. Her work improved upon an earlier design by Dr. James P. Henry of the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
that had not met the specifications needed by the Air Force. The mask she devised included pressurized air bladders around the ears that allowed pilots to operate at for 30 minutes. This represented a significant improvement over Henry's mask, which lacked the ear bladders and caused pilots pain after only 15 minutes at .


X-plane projects

King was assigned to work on the X-1 project that resulted in
Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...
's accomplishment of the first transsonic flight. She further improved the helmet design to use rigid plexiglass around the ears; this design was found to be effective at a simulated altitude of . These improvements were incorporated into the 1946 Army model S-1 flight suits built by the David Clark Company. Although several sources have reported that
Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...
was wearing this S-1 suit during his first record-setting first transsonic flight, Yeager said that he wore only a regular flight suit and not a pressure suit for that effort; King Chatham's exact contributions materials used in the X-plane program are unclear.


Space program

Following her work for the Air Force, King Chatham went on to work for NASA and its contractor the
Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and military, defense company based in Southern California. Founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr., it merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell D ...
on projects for the space program. She designed the oxygen mask and harness used by Albert II, the
rhesus monkey The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...
who was the first monkey and first mammal in space, during his June 14, 1949 flight. She also developed pressurized suits and helmets for the
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...
s who were used to test ejection seats as part of Project Whoosh. In addition to these primates, King Chatham designed a suit for the St. Bernard used to test high-altitude
parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...
s. King Chatham's continued to work on designs for humans as well as animal subjects. She worked on the Sierra Sam early crash-test dummy. For
Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
, the first
human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
program in the United States, she made casts of the crew members' heads to create custom-fitted masks and helmets for each astronaut. Her work for the space program also included the development of stretch knit garments and a bed for use in space. In 1964, she appeared on the television program ''
To Tell the Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...
'', and was asked about her experiences designing for space. King Chatham applied her design experience in the space program to terrestrial science as well. She founded the Alice King Chatham Medical Arts, a company that manufactured harnesses, restraints, and other physiological equipment for both human and animal subjects in research environments.


Death

Alice King Chatham died at a nursing home in
Marion, Ohio Marion is a city in Marion County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located in north-central Ohio, approximately north of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 35,999 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down slig ...
, on 8 July 1989. She was preceded in death by her husband, Joshua D. Chatham.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatham, Alice King 1908 births 1989 deaths NASA people 20th-century American sculptors United States Air Force civilians Female United States Air Force personnel 20th-century American women sculptors