Biography

Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame (1979).

As chairman of the Stapp Foundation, he led the annual Stapp Car Crash Conference, which brought together automotive engineers, trauma surgeons and other experts to examine how people died in car crashes.

Dr. Stapp served in medical advisory and staff positions with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, among others. His many awards included the Medal of Technology, presented to him by President Bush in 1991. He was president of the American Rocket Society and wrote more than 50 technical articles.

Air Force medical researcher who rode a rocket-powered sled at a speed faster than a .45-caliber bullet in an experiment to test the limits of human endurance. Dr. Stapp accelerated in 5 seconds from a standstill to 632 miles an hour. The sled then decelerated to a dead stop in 1.4 seconds, subjecting Dr. Stapp to pressures 40 times the pull of gravity. The experiment has been compared with being in an automobile crashing into a wall at 50 miles an hour with the shock of the impact lasting 18 times as long. The sudden stop was accomplished using bucket scoops underneath the sled, digging into a trough of water. He was blinded but recovered his sight in a couple of hours, ending up with two black eyes because his eyeballs had shot forward in their sockets.

Suffered an injury in the experiment that inspired Murphy's Law. In 1949, an assistant, Capt. Edward A. Murphy Jr., had designed a harness to strap in the rider. The harness held 16 sensors to measure the acceleration, or G-force, on different body parts. There were exactly two ways each sensor could be installed. Captain Murphy did each one the wrong way. The result was that when Dr. Stapp staggered off the rocket sled with bloodshot eyes and bleeding sores, all the sensors registered zero. He had been strained in vain. A distraught Captain Murphy proclaimed the original version of the famous maxim: ''If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way.''.

[prior to riding the Sonic Wind I for the first time] I assure you, I'm not looking forward to this.

[on why he volunteered for 29 rocket sled runs] I have the missionary spirit. When asked to do something, I do it. I took my risks for information that will always be of benefit. Risks like that are worthwhile.