J. French et al., CREW FATIGUE DURING SIMULATED, LONG-DURATION B-1B BOMBER MISSIONS, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine, 65(5), 1994, pp. 10000001-10000006
Crew fatigue associated with successive and unaugmented 36 h missions
was evaluated in B-1B simulators, Data were obtained from 32 operation
ally qualified crewmembers. All crewmembers completed three consecutiv
e, long duration missions, each preceded by 33 to 35 h of crew rest. O
ral temperature, salivary melatonin and cortisol, as well as actigraph
and subjective measures, were collected during all missions. Temperat
ure and melatonin delta indicate that crews maintained their local hom
e base circadian cycles. Elevated cortisol and subjective fatigue duri
ng the first mission indicate that it was the most difficult of the th
ree. Furthermore, quality and duration of sleep were lowest during the
first mission. These findings emphasize the need for realistic traini
ng in long duration fatigue management to improve the safety and effec
tiveness of the first and subsequent missions.