Garsaux Suit

French pressure suit, tested 1935. The first French full pressure suit was designed by Dr Paul Garsaux with the backing of the Potez Airplane Company in 1935.

Garsaux was a pioneer of aviation medicine in France and director of the Paul Bert Aeromedical Center at Le Bourget. Mr Rosenthie assisted him in development of the suit, which was demonstrated at Le Bourget in June 1935. The Garsaux suit, at 14 kg, was touted as being much lighter than Wiley Post's design. All of Garsaux' work and records were destroyed by a German bomb on 3 June 1940 and all further aeromedical research in France was halted by the Nazi occupiers in October 1940.