Photo: High-Altitude Suits Keep Pressure on Pilots

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Jim Sokolik, a life-support technician at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, assists pressure-suited pilot Dee Porter into the cockpit of an ER-2 high-altitude aircraft.

Such suits are a vital second line of defense that keep pilots safe and healthy at high altitudes if the cockpit depressurizes.

Photograph courtesy NASA

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