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The Physics of Flight: Iron Man's anti-g Armor



The first Iron Man movie, released in 2008 and directed by Jon Favreau, was positively received by the public and achieved amazing results at the box office.

Tony Stark, billionaire genius, MCU playboy philanthropist, played by Robert Downey Jr., is forced by a group of terrorists to design lethal weapons.

Gifted with an extraordinary mind, he will succeed, with the help of a physicist, to realize with the few materials available an armor able to fly and protech him from the eniemies. How does our Tony speed up to reach ultrasonic speeds so quickly without losing consciousness?

Anti-g suit
A body within an accelerated frame of reference is subject to a fictitious force resulting from the acceleration of the frame itself. In the case of rapid vertical takeoff, the action of this force prevents the blood from flowing correctly towards the brain causing the loss of knowledge on the subject. To overcome this inconvenience, Tony, most likely, has implemented within his armor a sort of anti-g coating, similar to the suits used by fighter pilots and astronauts.

The anti-g suit uses compressed air that exerts a force on the lower part of the body and on the legs during maneuvers and flight phases. The pressure prevents the blood from being pushed into the lower part of the body, thus ensuring that the brain is not deprived of it.

Lastly, it is essential that Tony follow a specific training to endure these accelerations just like real astronauts do.



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