Wilbur Rounding Franks

Wilbur Rounding Franks, O.B.E., C.D.*, B.A., M.A., M.D., was born in Weston, Ontario, on March 4, 1901, and received his elementary and secondary education in Regina, Saskatchewan. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1924, his Masters Degree in Physiology in 1925, and three years later he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine. He then took a rotating internship at the Toronto General Hospital and assisted Dr. Frederick Banting with research projects. During 1930-31, while on sabbatical leave, he undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and the University of Munich, Germany.

Upon his return to Canada in September 1931, he resumed his career as a research associate with the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto, and specialized in cancer research. In 1937 he was appointed an associate professor at the University. During the period 1939-41, he performed defence medical research with Dr. Frederick Banting, and because of the highly secret nature of his work, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. When the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) formed its own medical branch, he was transferred to it with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

Military doctors who studied aviation medicine were aware that the newest fighter and bomber aircraft of the time had exceeded the physical capabilities of the pilots and crews who operated them. Pilots were experiencing G-forces many times the pull of gravity, and were temporarily losing consciousness from the effects of centrifugal force. Dr. Banting was approached to provide assistance, since his fame as co-discoverer of insulin would be certain to result in funding for research.

Franks was a senior researcher on Banting's team, and he began active medical research into solving the problems related to high altitude flying and high G-force manoeuvers. During his cancer research experiments in 1938 he had discovered that he could prevent small test tubes from breaking while being accelerated if he immersed them in larger, stronger, laboratory centrifuge tubes filled with water. He concluded that a similar immersion should protect pilots who are subjected to high radial accelerations and de-accelerations. He designed a protective suit consisting of durable non-stretch fabric containing water filled bladders which fitted over a person's abdomen and legs. The suit automatically exerted counter-pressure by hydro-static force during high G-force loading, and proved that the principle was practicable. Franks was the first person to be protected from radial acceleration in an aircraft during tests while wearing the Franks Flying Suit.

During this time, Franks was instrumental in procuring facilities for the RCAF No. 1 Clinical Investigation Unit. As early as 1939 he had sketched out the fundamental design for a man-rated centrifuge, consisting of a gondola at the end of a rotating boom. Once Franks' concepts had been laid out, the over-all design and engineering was carried out by members of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Toronto. The end result was the RCAF human centrifuge, the first machine of its kind on the Allied side in the Second World War. The centrifuge was used to produce various G-forces at high speeds, simulating the effect of manoeuvers in combat aircraft. The basic design is still used to train astronauts.

Franks was appointed Director of Aviation Medical Research, RCAF, Overseas, and in March 1941 he proceeded to RCAF Headquarters at London, England. He served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) Physiological Laboratory, and the Royal Aeronautical Establishment at Farnborough. He also served with the Air Fighter Development Unit at Duxford, RAF Fighter Command, and the Fleet Air Arm in connection with the further development and introduction of the G-suit. This was the first G-suit to be used operationally anywhere in the world.

Franks returned to Canada as a Squadron Leader in 1943, and until 1945 he served as Director of the Investigation Section of the RCAF Headquarters Directorate of Medical Services in Ottawa. That appointment was followed by attachment to the RCAF Institute of Aviation Medical Research, National Research Council, Ottawa, correlating the work of both civilian and military research projects being carried out in Canada.

He retired from the RCAF in 1946, but retained his association with the air force in the capacity of Scientific Advisor in Aviation Medicine with the RCAF Institute of Aviation Medicine. He also returned to the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research to continue cancer research on a part-time basis. The remainder of his time was absorbed in the area of aerospace medicine. He published several articles related to his research. He retired from the department in 1969.

For his contributions to the advancement of aerospace medicine, Franks was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 1944, and received the United States Legion of Merit in 1946. The Aerospace Medical Association (USA) awarded him the Theodore C. Lyster Award in 1948 for outstanding research in aerospace medicine, and the Eric Liljencrantz Award in 1962 for outstanding research in problems of acceleration and altitude. He was made a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association in 1950 and the Canadian Aeronautical Institute in 1960. He was appointed Honorary Physician to the Queen in 1966 and Honorary President of the Canadian Society of Aviation Medicine in 1974.

Franks' interest in the field of aviation continued and in 1976, he co-fostered the development of the Universal Language of Air and Space Operations known as UNIGEN. The Aerospace Linguistic Foundation is developing the language as a response to linguistic problems encountered by modern-day air traffic controllers and air crew on a world-wide basis. He died at Toronto on January 4, 1986.

Dr. Wilbur Franks, called 'the father of aviation medicine', has been credited with saving the lives of thousands of fighter pilots. His G-suit, developed in 1942, has been worn by every air force pilot in the world, as well as the astronauts and cosmonauts. He designed the first human centrifuge, and was interested in research to improve the efficiency of oxygen masks worn by pilots at high altitudes, and in the effects on the body during rapid climbs in unpressurized aircraft.

Wilbur Rounding Franks was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.