TOM Cruise's character in Top Gun has become something of a movie icon. Striding across the burning asphalt of Andrews Air Force base, his aviator shades shielding those blue eyes from the sunlight, his helmet held casually in one hand, his puny physique pumped up thanks to the standard-issue flight suit.

The garb worn by fighter pilots hasn't changed much since Top Gun was made more than a decade ago. But if Cruise ever decides to make a sequel, his combat gear could be very different.

Humans are the most fragile and unreliable part of any modern day fighter aircraft. Our bodies simply aren't able to withstand the amazing gravitational forces exerted by aircraft as they accelerate through the sound barrier several times over.

The dangers posed by these G-forces were first noted by Nazi engineers who found Stukka pilots sometimes blacked out as they dived towards their targets. The effect of gravity prevents blood reaching the brain. Pilots feel dizzy, lose their vision and then their consciousness.

Designers came up with an anti-gravity suit which used hydro-pneumatic valves which pump bladders and squeeze the pilot's body to prevent the blood running from his head.

While these suits are undeniably effective, they are also painful to use. Pilots develop scars on their arms and legs where the bladders have literally popped their blood vessels.

Modern fighters also pump pressurised oxygen directly into the lungs. Forgetting to breathe at mach three can be bad for your long term health.

Attempts to find a better solution have floundered - the Americans have lavished at least $100m in the last few years alone - until now and the discovery that the answer to surviving high speed manoeuvring may lie with one of nature's most fragile insects - the dragonfly.

Scientists who studied dragonflies found that they were able to perform 30-G turns with relative impunity. The reason lies with the dragonfly's fragility. Every organ is encased in fluid. When blood transfers under the effect of gravity, so does the liquid, creating a counter pressure.

A Swiss inventor has spent 13 years designing a suit that cradles the person wearing it in an exo-skelton made up of fluid-filled tubes. The result is like encasing a pilot in a fluid womb. What's more the suit clearly works. One US pilot who tested it summed it up as: "You can go for a longer time. It's like sex with Viagra."

The suit is also lighter and more comfortable because it doesn't need complex electronic operation or pressurisation. The Germans have been sufficiently impressed to suggest the suit should be standard issue for their Eurofighter pilots.

Pilots in America and Britain are also examining the first test results and pretty soon a dragonfly suit could be standard equipment for every RAF top gun.

Published: 05/05/01