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A flight suit is a full-body garment, worn while flying aircraft such as military airplanes, gliders and . These suits are generally made to keep the wearer warm, as well as being practical (plenty of pockets), and durable (including fire retardant). Its appearance is usually similar to a jumpsuit. A military flight suit may also show Military rank insignia. It is sometimes used by Special Forces as a combat uniform in close quarters battle or visit, board, search, and seizure situations, for its practicality.
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By the time World War II started in earnest, electrically heated suits were introduced by Lion Apparel in conjunction with General Electric for patrol and bomber crews who routinely operated at high altitudes above , where air temperatures could get so cold that flesh could freeze instantly to any metal it touched. As enclosed and pressurized cabins came into operation, the necessity of bulky leather and shearling jackets and trousers began to fade. For example, pilots, navigators, and bombardiers of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress operating in Europe in 1944 comfortably wore their officer's uniforms under an A-2 flight jacket, due to the enclosed and heated cabin; but the tail- and ball turret gunners were more exposed, as were waist gunners who fired their guns through open window gunports. When the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was introduced in the Pacific War, along with remote-controlled coordinated gun turrets, the fully pressurized crew cabin made bulky flight gear obsolete.
Where bomber pilots could wear their service as flight gear, needed a uniform that functioned in the tight confines of the typical fighter plane cockpit. The AN-S-31 flight suit was developed for the US Army Air Corps and featured two button-down breast pockets and two button-down shin pockets that could be accessed from the sitting position. The US Navy used a slightly different model that featured slanted pockets with zippers. The material used was either wool or tight-weave cotton for wind resistance and fire protection.
The need for short-duration fire protection was demonstrated early during that war. As technology advanced, the fire-protective flight suit, helmets, goggles, masks, gloves and footwear were designed and used. The footwear often could be cut to appear like civilian shoes in the country where the crew member would land if shot down.
were also developed to give bomber crews some protection from flying shrapnel, though these increased the overall weight of the airplane and reduced the effective bombload that could be carried.
With the era of jet flight and improved focus on safety; however, fully fire-retardant materials were required. It was also simpler to make a one-piece suit when it would potentially have to fit over existing clothing or various types of under-garments.
Also, with the coming of jet flight came the development of the G-suit, a special kind of flight suit (worn alone or in combination with a traditional flight suit) that protected the wearer from the physical stress of acceleration by compressing the body to keep blood from pooling in the legs. As the pilot executed high-G combat maneuvers, their blood would be pulled from their head and shift downwards into their lower body, starving the brain of oxygen and causing a G-LOC. The G-suit was designed to allow some retention of blood in the pilot's head, allowing them to execute high-G turns for sustained periods of time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, even more specialized suits needed to be developed for high-altitude surveillance (such as with the U-2 and Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird aircraft) and space flight. These would include full pressurization, and would be the precursor to today's .
Although there are multiple pockets on the current CWU 27/P flight suit, all pockets are placed on the front of the flight suit or on the arms or legs. There are no pockets on the back of the flight suit. This design allows easier access to the pockets while the wearer is sitting (such as in the cockpit of an aircraft), and ensures that the wearer in a seated position does not have to sit on any items in a back pocket (such as a wallet).
Members of the United States Marine Corps wore flight suits during most vehicle patrols and ground combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, because their standard camouflage utilities were not flame-resistant. Flight suits have now been phased out among ground personnel with the introduction of the Flame Resistant Organizational Gear (FROG) suit, which resembles the standard camouflage utilities.
From STS-5 to STS-51-L, crews wore light blue flight suits and an oxygen helmet during launch/reentry. Apollo program crews wore white 2-piece beta cloth uniforms during non-essential activities and the full A7L pressure suit during launch, trans-lunar injection, lunar ascent/descent, and extravehicular activity. Project Mercury and Gemini crews wore their space suits for the duration of the mission, with the exception of Gemini 7.
Pilots and flight crews use several colors of flight suit. NASA crews, for example, wear blue flight suits as a sort of functional dress uniform during training. The orange suits that they wear during launch and re-entry/landing are designed for high visibility, should there be an emergency recovery. White suits are worn during space walks to control temperature. NASA non-astronaut flight crew at Langley Research Center wear blue, and crew at the Dryden Flight Research Center wear either green or desert tan, and all newer suits issued are desert tan.
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