What happens if you're a fighter pilot cruising along at 750 miles-per-hour and you need to pee? Historically, you'd need to unbuckle your harness and try to position yourself to urinate in a "piddle pack," basically a leak-proof bag with absorbent beads inside. That's much more easily done by those with penises.
In a 2023 survey of Navy pilots, almost 93% of women said they'd purposely avoid drinking water to skip bathroom breaks during long flights—sometimes lasting up to eight hours. The problem? Dehydration can seriously mess with a pilot's performance, cutting G-tolerance in half and leading to everything from blurred vision to passing out.
Well, urine luck! A new technology, called the Advanced Inflight Relief Universal System or AIRUS, aims to give all fighter pilots relief. Video below.
From Task & Purpose:
The device comes with five different cups for women and two sizes for men that are attached to a pump and collection bag that can hold up to 1,800 milliliters, or four to seven urinations, according to Colt Seman, founder of Airion, the company behind the device. The device also comes with dual-knit fabric underwear to make it more comfortable, Seman said.
"It's kind of reversed to what typical designing the military is. It's usually designed for males, and then, 'hey, yeah, we'll make it for a female.' This was a total opposite approach," Seman said. "We designed it for the females, and now the males are asking for it."
That's because, like everyone, they sometimes feel the need…. the need to pee.
Previously:
• NASA's Space Poop Challenge
• Jilted, diapered astronaut planned to kidnap rival
