“We’ve actually asked our A1 team to look at uniforms for women in general, including maternity uniforms and even just standard everyday stuff,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright said during the editorial board with Goldfein. It’s not just gear for fighter pilots that the service is looking into. Stacey Butler, right, is a clothing designer with the Uniform Office. Harrison, who's pregnant, has experience wearing the old version during an earlier pregnancy. Taylor Harrison, program manager at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Air Force Uniform Office, tries on the new maternity uniform. “We shouldn’t be at that point almost 30 years after women have been flying combat aircraft,” Wilson said.Ĭapt. Wilson said she was talking to an F-15 pilot who showed the secretary how female pilots are still having problems with flight equipment not designed for women. We all understand that, but it’s been a generation, folks.” “OK, well, why don’t we start designing equipment so that 90 percent of Americans can do the job?” Wilson said. Most equipment was designed that way as well.”īecause this was the standard, the Air Force believed many women didn’t qualify to fly combat aircraft because they weren’t big enough to fit into that spectrum. “Seats were designed to accommodate from the 10th to the 90th percentile for American men,” Wilson said during an event in January. The review is expected to take about a year, according to Air Combat Command.Īir Force Secretary Heather Wilson said when she was a young officer, there were real limitations on women flying combat aircraft. Combat harnesses to reduce risk of injury during an ejection.Anti-exposure suits with tight wrist and neck seals to keep water out during an ejection.However, developing gear that might not exist yet in sizes that pilots need could take more than a year, she said. “I can order it quickly and the warehouse will send it to me, and I open up a box of gear that fits me.” “Let’s say I want a 34 female flight suit,” Weeks said. Mike Holmes likened the idea to Stitch Fix, an online subscription service that sends clothes in the correct sizes. The goal is to set this up in the next 90 days, and Weeks said ACC commander Gen. “They want to try to put in a centralized location so when a woman needs a female flight suit and her local installation doesn’t have it immediately on hand, she can call this 1-800 number or go to a centralized warehouse and very quickly obtain it,” Weeks said. The service wants to consolidate gear in typical female sizes, including flight suits, boots, jackets, G-suits, harnesses, life-support vests and gloves. Rhiannon Willard/Air Force)Īir Combat Command has reached out to Weeks for her feedback and assistance with the review as the Air Force works on short-term and long-term solutions. Weeks, now a colonel, has been flying since 1997. Samantha Weeks, 12th Fighter Squadron, enters her F-15C prior to a training mission in Alaska. This causes a different center of gravity that pulls on the shoulders, neck and back. “When you’re sitting in the fighter aircraft, the radios of the vest are actually resting on your lap because you can’t make it small enough or tight enough to fit a female stature,” Weeks said. The chief of staff said women are wearing men’s vests, and he wants to make sure the weight-bearing side of the vest is suited for both men and women. “You’ve got to be able to turn, you’ve got to be able to look around.” “You’ve got to be able to move inside that cockpit,” he said. Goldfein, speaking Thursday at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington, D.C., said these vests need to be arranged correctly in terms of where the equipment goes. The vest holds life-support equipment such as radios and flares, and Weeks said a lot of it is worn in the front. “So when you’re pulling 8, 9 Gs in the aircraft, you can keep the blood from rushing to your legs and keep it up in your heart and in your brain so you don’t have a loss of consciousness,” she said.Īfter talking to other female fighter pilots and air crews, Weeks said they all noted that the survival vest needs to be improved.
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