The RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine (RAF CAM) is a medical organisation run by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and based at

RAF Henlow RAF Henlow is a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, equidistant from Bedford, Luton and Stevenage. It houses the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the Joint Arms Control Implementation Group (JACIG), elements of Defence Equipment ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

. It is the main organisation conducting

aviation medicine Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which aircr ...

research in the UK.

History

Formation

The centre was formed on 1 December 1998 as a result of the merger of the School of Aviation Medicine based at Farnborough in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

and the Aviation Medicine Training Centre based at

RAF North Luffenham RAF North Luffenham was a Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, 1940 - 1998. It is near to the villages of Edith Weston and North Luffenham. History Second World War The station was built as a training airfield, opening in 1940. It w ...

in Rutland. The centre's predecessor was the

RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine The Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine was a Royal Air Force aviation medicine research unit active between 1945 and 1994. Early days The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) was opened on 30 April 1945 by the Princess Royal. ...

(RAF IAM), which closed in 1994.

Expansion

The RAF Medical Board and RAF Institute of Health moved from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire to the centre on 1 June 2000, becoming the Occupation and Environmental Medicine Wing. It was formerly part of

RAF Personnel and Training Command Personnel and Training Command (PTC) was one of two commands of the Royal Air Force (the other being Strike Command) that were merged to form Air Command on 1 April 2007. History Formation PTC was formed in 1994 bringing together the r ...

, becoming part of

RAF Air Command Air Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. ...

in 2007. In April 2022, the centre retired its two BAE Systems Hawk T1 which were based at

MOD Boscombe Down MoD Boscombe Down ' is the home of a military aircraft testing site, on the southeastern outskirts of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. The site is managed by QinetiQ, the private defence company created as part of the breakup of the De ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. The aircraft were used for trials by the centre's Aviation Medicine Flight. The flight moved to

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England. The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...

to continue its work using Hawks operated by the Red Arrows.

Future

Due to anticipated closure of RAF Henlow, It is planned to relocate the centre to a new purpose-built facility at

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the Royal Air Force College (RAFC), which tra ...

by 2026.

Function

The RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine is the lead authority in the British Armed Forces for

and provides: * advice, support and services to the Ministry of Defence,

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and Royal Air Force,

Military Aviation Authority The Military Aviation Authority (MAA) is an organisation within the British Ministry of Defence and is the single regulatory authority responsible for regulating all aspects of Air Safety across Defence, with full oversight of all Defence aviation ...

Air Accidents Investigation Branch The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. It is also the Space Accident Investigation Authority (SAIA ...

, Defence Accident Investigation Branch, academia and commercial organisations * support in the development of aircraft and other systems, including urgent operational requirements * the RAF Medical Board and clinical assessment of military aircrew and air traffic controllers *

chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence (CBRN defence) are protective measures taken in situations in which chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear warfare (including terrorism) hazards may be present. CBRN defence consist ...

(CBRN) training for aircrew * aviation medicine training to the British armed forces and aircrew and medical personnel from other nations * aviation medicine &

aeromedical Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

policy *

occupational health Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...

and

environmental health Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...

support

Flying research

The centre researches the medical effects of flying, such as hypoxia and the effects of G-force. Flying fast-jet aircraft puts the

cardiovascular physiology Cardiovascular physiology is the study of the cardiovascular system, specifically addressing the physiology of the heart ("cardio") and blood vessels ("vascular"). These subjects are sometimes addressed separately, under the names cardiac physiolog ...

of the human body under extreme physical stress. Without intervention, exposure to high

G force The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measure ...

would cause a pilot to lose consciousness through lack of blood to the brain, otherwise known as G-induced loss of consciousness or

G-LOC g-force induced loss of consciousness (abbreviated as G-LOC, pronounced "JEE-lock") is a term generally used in aerospace physiology to describe a loss of consciousness occurring from excessive and sustained g-forces draining blood away from t ...

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...

pilots regularly experience 9G. Other dangers include rapid

uncontrolled decompression Uncontrolled decompression is an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin or hyperbaric chamber, and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure, or impact, causing a pressure vesse ...

from failure of

cabin pressurisation Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for passengers and crew flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is u ...

, and the centre has four

hypobaric chamber A hypobaric chamber, or altitude chamber, is a chamber used during aerospace or high terrestrial altitude research or training to simulate the effects of high altitude on the human body, especially hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypobaria (low ambient ...

s. Airlines that do not have their own aviation medicine research establishments (e.g.

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

) have contracted out work to the RAF's Centre.

Academic support

King's College London School of Medicine and Dentistry at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

has run a MSc programme in aviation medicine, which involves the RAF's Centre, specifically the practical experience of G-forces, decompression, whole-body vibration, and

vestibular The Vestibular (from pt, vestíbulo, "entrance hall") is a competitive examination and is the primary and widespread entrance system used by Brazilian universities to select the students admitted. The Vestibular usually takes place from Nove ...

(balance sensory system) and visual disorientation.

Training courses

The centre provides training for aircrew from the RAF and other organisations (via International Defence Training or Horizon Training) in subjects such as using

night vision goggle A night-vision device (NVD), also known as a night optical/observation device (NOD), night-vision goggle (NVG), is an optoelectronic device that allows visualization of images in low levels of light, improving the user's night vision. The devi ...

s and dealing with hypoxia.International Defence Training courses
/ref> It provides training for the on-board Critical Care Air Support Team (CCAST, similar to the

Critical Care Air Transport Team The Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) concept dates from 1988, when Col. P.K. Carlton and Maj. J. Chris Farmer originated the development of this program while stationed at U.S. Air Force Hospital Scott, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Dr. C ...

of the USAF)

Facilities

The new RAF High G Training and Test Facility at RAF College Cranwell was opened on 4 February 2019 and is used to provide high-G training.

References

External links

Online catalogue

Medical training support website

News items

BBC's ''Inside Out'' visits the hypobaric chamber to test the effects of hypoxia

Price Edward tours the centre in October 2006

BBC Breakfast RAF pilots get new G-force training centre
{{authority control Aviation medicine organizations Aviation research institutes Health in Bedfordshire Organisations based in Bedfordshire Organizations established in 1998 Royal Air Force Medical Services Medical associations based in the United Kingdom Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Military medical training establishments Military research establishments of the United Kingdom Science and technology in Bedfordshire Training establishments of the Royal Air Force Aviation organisations based in the United Kingdom Military medical research organizations of the United Kingdom Henlow