Hurricane Pilots

Image courtesy NASA's Dryden Flight Research Centre NASA's DC-8 research aircraft may look like a commercial airliner from the outside, but the inside is a different story! The interior of the plane has been converted into a flying laboratory filled with data-gathering scientific equipment. With the lives of the scientists who operate the instruments also at stake, the DC-8 pilots must be extra-cautious.

The cabin is pressurised to about 28,000 ft.," said Nystrom. "However, if we should lose cabin pressure for any variety of reasons, then the pressure would drop to ambient pressure. If we didn't have that suit to protect us, our blood would boil .... it would be fatal."

The majority of these missions are flown high above the destruction the storm unleashes at ground level, but the storms right around the eye can sometimes extend all the way up to the altitudes where the ER-2 flies. "When we experience moderate to strong turbulence, we tend to get away from that," Nystrom said.

Mission rules are followed closely, especially regarding turbulence, where pilots are instructed to escape the area before the situation gets out of hand.

"These rules are driven, basically, by the capabilities of the airplane," Montoya said. It's a situation where following the rules is very important! With the proper caution and equipment, these skilful pilots are able to do their seemingly treacherous jobs safely, collecting vital data from inside the largest storms on Earth.

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