Peer Review and Oversight of Aero Medical Research during World War II in America: The Committee on Aviation Medicine and its Sub‐Committees

Aero medical research in America was initiated during WWI. Research funding, however, was terminated shortly after hostilities ceased. Aero medical research was restarted in 1934 at Wright Field and later, the Mayo Clinic (1939). Thus, much work needed to be done due to advancements in aeronautics and the looming threat of a global war in 1939. American physiologists learned in 1939 that Germany had been actively researching problems of aviation medicine since the early 1930s. The Committee on Aviation Medicine (CAM) was established in the fall of 1940 and charged with identifying the important physiological problems unique to flight, and locating the few pre‐existing research facilities for hypobaric research. The CAM also had to identify physiologists who could best adapt their research programs to the unexplored problems of aviation medicine. The CAM, chaired by E.F. DuBois, would eventually oversee a total of 37 research projects at 22 academic institutions during WWII, all funded by the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Committee members, recruited primarily from the ranks of the APS, evaluated the scientific merit and progress of each research project monthly/bimonthly. The CAM and its project performers worked closely with the Allied air forces and America's aircraft industry to develop the protective flight gear for waging warfare in the cold, rarefied atmosphere above 20,000 to 40,000 feet.