Herrera's stratonautic space suit
Escafandra estratonáutica de Emilio Herrera
- Date
- 1935 · confidence medium
- Place
- Madrid, Spain
- Credited to
- Emilio Herrera Linares
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A pressurised suit with a spherical helmet, insulating layers and oxygen supply designed for a stratospheric balloon flight, the 'Stratonautic Project'. It is one of the first full-body pressure suits conceived for high altitude.
The flight planned for 1936 was cancelled by the Spanish Civil War. It is often claimed that the design influenced NASA suits, but that direct influence is undocumented; Wiley Post had used a pressure suit in 1934.
What it led to
- a model for high-altitude and, later, space suit design
- weightlessness and pressurisation tests in Spain
- a posthumous place in aerospace history as the 'Herrera suit'
Built on
- High-altitude pressure suit (Wiley Post, 1934)