Brain damge found at high cockpit altitudes

'Mental-decline brain lesions' found in high-flying military pilots

Aviators piloting aircraft at very high altitudes for the military have "significantly more" brain lesions known as white matter hyperintensities, US Air Force medical researchers have found through MRI scanning.
The study, published in Neurology, compared the MRI images from 102 USAF pilots of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft with brain scans from 91 controls matched for age, health and education levels.

The U-2 Dragon Lady is an aircraft made by Lockheed Martin, originally designed to go high enough to evade destruction by Soviet anti-aircraft fire during surveillance missions in the Cold War.

It flies at altitudes above about 69,000 feet (above 21,000 meters) and maintains a cabin altitude - the altitude equivalent kept inside the cockpit or cabin of an aircraft - of between 28,000 and 30,000 feet.

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