pressure suit

plural pressure suits

1. space flightaeronauticsA sealed, full-body garment, usually with an attachable helmet, which maintains air pressure or mechanical pressure around the body of an astronaut or aviator to compensate for the low density of the air at high altitudes.

   Have you fur pressure-suits?

   1928 September, E. E. Smith, Lee Hawkins Garby, “The Skylark of Space”, in Amazing Stories, volume 3, number 6, page 539

   3 more examples

   The chances for survival would be greatly increased if one member of the crew in a punctured ship was wearing a pressure suit.

   1964 November 19, Walter Sullivan, “Apes Surviving in Vacuum Tests: Research Hints Astronauts Have Chance in Accidents”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 May 2014

   In 1947 he had taken a de Havilland Vampire jet fighter to a then world record height of 59,460 feet, without a pressure suit,

   2002 July 29, Nigel Fountain, “Obituary: John Cunningham, Wartime night-fighter hero and post-war Comet airliner test pilot”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 03 May 2014

   Alan Shepard, the first American in space, famously relieved himself inside his silver pressure suit while waiting out the countdown in his tiny Mercury capsule.

   2011 April 12, Jeffrey Kluger, “Gagarin's Golden Anniversary”, in Time, retrieved 03 May 2014