Harry George Armstrong

Who was Harry George Armstrong?

Harry George Armstrong, known as "the father of space medicine", was a Major General in the United States Air Force, a physician, and an airman. Armstrong served in the Marines during World War I and the Army and Air Force from 1930 to 1957. As Director of the United States Aeromedical Research Laboratory, he applied his medical and aviation knowledge to the improvement of aircrew protection from temperature extremes and the lack of oxygen at high altitude.

He is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of aviation medicine. The "Armstrong Limit", the altitude above which water boils at the temperature of the human body, is named after him.