For decades, fighter pilots—especially women—have been forced to either hold in their pee for eight hours until they touch ground again, or they’ve had to use “piddle packs,” little vinyl bags they have to firmly pressed against themselves and then not move at all or risk peeing inside a very expensive jet.
Some avoid peeing altogether by dehydrating themselves before they even get in the cockpit. It’s reported that 93 percent of women pilots dehydrated themselves, leading to dizziness, headaches, and vision impairment.
Military news site Task and Purpose reports on a new gadget that aims to make urinating in the skies much easier. It’s called the AIRUS, which stands for Advanced Inflight Relief Universal System. Think of it as high-tech astronaut underwear with various pumps and tubes that allow pilots to piss themselves with the ease and comfort.
The Air Force Has Devised A New And Exciting Way For Pilots To Pee In The Sky
It doesn’t leak, thanks to a variety of swappable cups of various sizes to accommodate different body types. There are five different cups for women to choose from and two different cup sizes for men.
Whichever size they choose, the cup is then attached to a pump and a collection bag that can safely secure around 1800 milliliters of urine, which is just over 7 ½ cups of pee, which just so happens to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the average amount of urine your average hydrated person expels in a day.
Historically, military flight gear was designed for men first, then awkwardly retrofitted for women. That’s not the case with AIRUS, which is made by a company called Airion. And yes, it is unfortunately pronounced exactly the way you think it is.
The company’s founder is named Colt Seman, a fitting name for a guy in the genital fluids business. Colt Seman tells Task and Purpose that even though it was designed for women, male pilots are now asking for their own version of it.
The military has a long history of having its technological developments, ahem, trickle down into the private sector. There are quite a few industries that can use an AIRUS.
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