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Uruguay takes a key step in pilot training with unprecedented technology in the region
LATU technicians verified the pressure conditions of a chamber adapted by the Armed Forces to simulate flight altitudes on the ground. This progress will allow military pilots to train in Uruguay with higher levels of safety and without depending on facilities abroad.
Military pilots often fly aircraft that do not have pressurized cabins. For this reason, they must undergo tests to verify how their bodies respond at different altitudes before a loss of consciousness occurs.
With the need to carry out these safety procedures in a controlled environment using their own equipment, the Naval Aviation Command of the National Navy identified the possibility of converting a hyperbaric chamber—originally designed to work with and train divers under high pressure—into a hypobaric chamber.
These devices are used to simulate altitude, that is, to lower air pressure and oxygen levels as if a person were flying at high altitude. By converting the chamber and putting it into operation, it became possible to simulate on the ground flight-altitude conditions of up to 40.000 feet, with the possibility of evaluating the conditions of anoxia and vacuum to which the pilot is exposed when flying at that altitude.
To monitor this adaptation process, the Navy turned to LATU to verify that the chamber’s pressure values were adequate and stable during simulated medical evaluations. To this end, analysts from LATU’s Materials and Forest Products Department developed solutions tailored to this need, carrying out leak-tightness tests (verification of airtightness) and verification procedures using controlled and calibrated instruments.
National and regional impact
Until now, the Armed Forces did not have equipment of this kind, as the Uruguayan Air Force does not have any operational chamber and pilots have had to train abroad. With this new service, pilots will be able to do so in the country.
This development also has regional significance. In Argentina, there are two chambers of this type, but neither is currently in operating condition, which positions this infrastructure as a strategic resource in the region.
What tests did LATU perform?
For the leak-tightness test, which consists of verifying the chamber’s airtightness, the interior of the chamber was brought to a vacuum level greater than that required for the normal training of future pilots, with two people inside.
In the case of the verification of steady-state conditions, LATU’s technical contribution involved comparing the chamber’s own flight instruments, certified by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the equipment brought by the team of analysts, calibrated by the Laboratory’s Scientific Metrology area.
Once the tests corresponding to the different flight altitudes had been completed, a test report was issued including the vacuum pressure measurement points and their corresponding flight altitude.
This contributes to the safety of data collection for pilot operation at altitude, while remaining on the ground and under the supervision of a physician testing the body’s response.
The joint work between the Navy and LATU shows how applied innovation and national technical knowledge can become concrete solutions for critical areas. In this case, the impact is direct: greater safety, more local training, and a strategic capability that places Uruguay in a prominent position at the regional level.
