Science: A Shape that Came

One of the costumes that the cinemadapters of H. G. Wells’s The Shape of Things to Come dreamed up is here. The flyer is wearing a “Strato-Suit” developed by the late Major John G. Kearby of the Air Technical Service Command and by B. F. Goodrich Co. Designed for high-altitude flying, the electrically heated, pressurized suit could theoretically keep a man comfortable at 80,000 feet. The plastic bubble enclosing the head has oxygen for breathing, a microphone and earphones for communication. A man can zip himself into the suit in two minutes.