Breathing in Extreme Environments
LtCol Justin “Astro” Elliot
In this week's episode, we're focusing on breathing in some pretty extreme circumstances. Our guest is Lt Col Justin "Astro" Elliott (depending on when you're listening to this, possibly Colonel already). It's hard to find someone more qualified to talk about breathing for extreme physiological demands - Astro has flown 30+ different airframes, commanded the Thunderbirds demonstration squadron, and led the Air Force's efforts to address breathing problems among fighter pilots.
Astro went to Yale where he was a D1 collegiate swimmer and a Mechanical Engineering engineering major, so he embraced the high performer life early. He graduated and was commissioned in the Air Force in 2005, and went on to fly the F-15E in Afghanistan, including participating in the Battle of Kamdesh, which is featured in both Red Platoon and The Outpost. He went on to get Master’s Degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Flight Test Engineering and is a graduate of both the USAF Weapons School and the USAF Test Pilot School. He commanded the 59th Test and Eval Squadron (which includes All 6 fighter/attack jets in one squadron), and then most recently served as Thunderbird 1, the commander of the USAF Thunderbirds. He just wrapped up that command and is now at the NATO Defense College in Rome.
Bonus facts about Astro:
He is the first person in history to complete all 3 Air Force elite flying programs (Weapons School, Test Pilot School, and Thunderbirds).
He combined fighter breathing knowledge from 9 communities into 1 unifying brief to explain fighter physiological performance across disparate communities.
He is a founding member of COPE Fighter, (characterizing/optimizing the physiological environment in fighters).
He founded "Crowd Sourced Flight Test" - pulling fighter test data from fielded forces to avoid test environment stovepipes and accelerate iterative learning.
He was a finalist on the NASA Astronaut 2017 board. He also participated in the 2021 board but withdrew to accept the Thunderbird 1 assignment.
