Military Career
Stapp entered the Army Air Corps on 5 October 1944. On 10 August 1946, he was transferred to the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field as project officer and medical consultant in the Biophysics Branch. His first assignment as a project officer included a series of flights testing various oxygen systems in unpressurized aircraft at 40,000 ft (12.2 km). One of the biggest problems with high-altitude flight was the danger of "the bends" or decompression sickness. Stapp's work resolved that problem and a host of others that led to the next generation of high-altitude aircraft, as well as HALO insertion techniques. He was assigned to the deceleration project in March 1947.
In 1967, the Air Force loaned Stapp to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct auto-safety research. Dr. Stapp retired from the US Air Force with the rank of colonel in 1970.
Read more about this topic: John Stapp
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