Female Hairstyle and Flight Helmet Accommodation: The AMELIA Project. Phase I: Survey Study. Part 2: Survey Responses

Most personal protective equipment in current military aviation was designed with male aircrew in mind. To ensure that female aviator performance is not hampered by improperly fitted or sized equipment, the U.S. Navy (USN) established the Aircrew Modified Equipment Leading to Increased Accommodation (AMELIA) program. In this Phase I study, a novel questionnaire was distributed to a variety of USN and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) aviation installations around the world to assess the effect of female hairstyles on flight helmet performance and safety. One hundred and one completed questionnaires were returned to the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USARRL) resulting in a response rate of 21-40%.