James Paget Henry; Helped Devise Suits for Fliers, Astronauts

James Paget Henry, 82, USC educator whose research contributed to early U.S. space missions. Henry, a professor of physiology in the USC School of Medicine, also held the patent on the first partial pressure suit used by Air Force and Navy pilots. A native of Leipzig, Germany, Henry studied at Cambridge University in England and McGill University in Canada. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen who began teaching aviation medicine at USC in 1943, soon designing the flight suit to offer altitude protection for pilots. He left the university for 15 years to work for the Air Force as an environmental physiologist researching cardiovascular problems caused by altitude and acceleration. From 1947 to 1956, Henry directed the Physiology of Rocket Flight research project, which led to the first successful animal rocket flights and provided the basis for the Space Biology Laboratory in Alamogordo, N.M. On Wednesday in Los Angeles of cancer.