Rocket Sled Riders In the mid-1940s, Air Force flight surgeon and physician Col John Stapp began studying the effects of high speed travel on the human body. Stapp and other test subjects rode in rocket-powered sleds which could reach 600 mph in six seconds, then slammed to a stop. One of Col Stapp’s volunteers, MSgt William Rhea, made fourteen sled runs and volunteered for repeated exposures to high g-force levels. Airman Second Class Alton Yates volunteered for sixty-five rides to show the hum

Imagine being strapped to a rocket sled accelerating faster than a speeding bullet to study the human body in action. This was the experiment of Colonel John Stapp in the late 1940s at Edwards Air Force Base, where he pushed the limits of human endurance to enhance pilot safety. The project faced technical problems when Captain Edward A Murphy Jr observed that costly sensors failed owing to wiring mistakes so a notion emerged that if anything can go wrong, it surely will. That idea evolved into