 The crew and passengers of modern, high-performance

aircraft are physically unable to sur vive the extreme

envi­ronment in which these airplanes fly without some sort
of conditioning of the air within the cabin and cockpit.
 Primarily because of the various altitudes at which an aircraft
operates, the cabin atmosphere must be controlled to
increase the comfort of the occupants or even to sustain
their lives.
 The physiology of the human body that determines the
atmospheric conditions required for life, how oxygen and
cabin altitude are controlled to provide a livable atmosphere
for the aircraft occupants, and how the comfort needs of the
passen­gers and crew are met.
 In order to understand the reasons for
controlling the cabin atmosphere or
environment, it is necessar y to
understand both the characteristics of the
atmosphere and the physiological needs
of the persons flying within that
atmosphere.
 The atmosphere is a physical mixture of
gases. Nitrogen makes up approximately
78% of the air, and oxygen makes up 21%
of the total mixture. The remainder is
composed of water vapor, carbon
diox­ide and inert gases.
 The density of air refers to the number of
air mole­cules within a given volume of
the atmosphere. As air pressure decreases,
the density of the air also decreases.
Conversely, as temperature increases the
density of the air decreases. This change
in air den­sity has a tremendous effect on
the operations of high altitude aircraft as
well as physiological effects on humans.
 The standard temperature of the air at
sea level is 15 Celsius, or 59 Fahrenheit.
 The temperature also decreases with
altitude.
 Above 36,000 feet, the temperature of
the air stabilizes, remaining at -55 C (-69.7
F).
 The human body is made up of living cells
that must be continually supplied with
food and oxygen and must have their
waste carried away and removed from the
body.
 Blood, circulated through the body by the
heart, carries food and oxygen to the cells
and carries away waste products.
 When people inhale, or take in air, the
lungs expand and the atmospheric
pressure forces air in to fill them.
 This air fills millions of tiny air sacs called
alveoli, and the oxygen in the air diffuses
through the extremely thin membrane
walls of these sacs into blood vessels
called arteries.
 Lack of oxygen.
 Any time the body is deprived of the
required amount of oxygen, it will develop
hypoxia.
 As hypoxia becomes more severe, a person's
time of useful consciousness decreases.
 Time of useful con­sciousness is defined as
the time a person has to take corrective
action before becoming so severely impaired
that they cannot help themselves.
 Two of the more common first
indications of hypoxia occur at about ten
thousand feet altitude.
 These are an increased breathing rate and
a headache. Some other signs of hypoxia
are light-headedness, dizziness with a
tingling in the fingers, vision impairment,
and sleepiness.