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[Please send a copy of the reply to me (= A.APPLEYARD@FS*.MT*.UM*.AC*.UK*), as I had to unsubscribe because of email intray overload.] The 1970's space story series `UFO' is being re-run now on BBC TV 2 (UK TV), Mondays 6pm or 6.25pm. It is about a secret organization called SHADO which defends Earth against UFO attacks. What is relevant or at least semi-relevant here, is:- (0) Is that series known of in USA? When was/is it being shown there? (1) It shows two sorts of spacesuits (human and alien). The spacesuits, particularly the alien spacesuits, look too well made to be film prop workshop mockups or throw-togethers, and I am wondering whether the series's producers managed to get hold of some sort of real working suit, and dress it up with imitation space life-support gear. They are obviously not ordinary overalls or motorcycle suits or chemicals-suits or the like painted silvery and bodged up to look `space-ish'. The helmets on both sorts are clearly the real thing and not made from motorcycle helmets or the like; I saw the helmet-to-suit fastening close up, and it looked authentic to me. The men and aliens in these spacesuits appeared close-up for extended shots, not just from far or beiefly. The alien spacesuits are: The flexible parts are red (unless that is a film prop workshop repaint). No sign of a cuff-to-glove pressure-seal joint. The helmet faceplate is roughly rectangular with rounded corners and the top wider than the bottom; the rest of the helmet is opaque, and roughly cylindrical with a hemispherical top. It is not a `goldfish bowl' like e.g. on a NASA spacesuit which is exhibited at Jodrellbank in Cheshire in England. The helmet is detachable. The suit, or at least the helmet, is filled with a special liquid, which the wearer breathes; that would make the suit constant-volume to avoid the ballooning nuisance, and likely would tend to protect against G-effects on the chest etc. Earth-humans can wear them safely. The human spacesuits are a different colour and have different shaped helmets, but also look realistic. Does anyone out there know of, in the 1970's or before: (a) a pressure suit (for fighter pilots or balloon pilots or experimental rocket plane pilots) with full arms and legs, and a space-type helmet instead of an oxygen mask and a crash-helmet, or (b) a lightweight closely-fitting spacesuit-like diving suit, or (c) a spacesuit-like protective suit for some other purpose, that the film studio may have got hold of and dressed up to look like a spacesuit? Or could they indeed have been made in a film prop workshop and yet look so realistic?
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