Charles Frederic Gell Papers

Charles Frederic Gell (1907-1980) was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 16. He was a highly decorated naval officer before entering private industry with Chance-Vought Corporation and LTV Aerospace Corporation. He received his M.D. degree from Loyola University School of Medicine in 1936 and was commissioned in the Navy Medical Corps the following year. He was designated a flight surgeon by the Navy in 1938, by the Army in 1939, and became a naval aviator in 1945. Assigned to the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in 1943, he directed development of improved oxygen apparatus, flight clothing, survival and rescue equipment, and equipment for counteracting the effects of high acceleration.

After World War II, Gell became executive officer at the Naval School of Aviation Medicine in Pensacola, FL., where he organized the first radiological defense course and was instructor in the fields of aviation physiology, nuclear physics and medical aspects of nuclear energy. He moved to the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory in Johnsville PA. in 1949, then became director of the Air Crew Equipment Laboratory in Philadelphia in 1955. From 1951-1956, Gell was lecturer and assistant professor of aviation physiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Medicine, at the same time earning an M.S. and Doctor of Medical Science for his work physiology. Lastly, he joined the Office of Naval Research in 1958 and retired from the military in 1960 as a captain.

Gell's work with LTV Aerospace Corp. centered on his research with physiologists, psychologists and engineers developing and enhancing man's capabilities in space. His pioneering work included use of the human centrifuge to produce accelerations and gravity forces encountered in space vehicles, developing high-altitude oxygen systems, and contributing to the development of the full-pressure suit, forerunner to the space suit worn by astronauts. He was also the first to publish research on the hazards of cosmic rays, as well as principle investigator in the use of the supine seat for space flight and creator of studies exploring explosive decompression in space vehicles. He left LTV in 1966 and joined the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, CT. He continued his research and teaching activities into the 1970s, as well as serving on several federal and international committees.

Dr. Gell's awards include the John Jeffries Award of the American Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, the Theodore Lyster Award of the Aero Medical Association, and the Melbourne W. Boynton Award for space medicine from the American Astronautical Society.