Racal suit
Protective suit with powered air-purifying respirator / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Racal suit (also known as a Racal space suit)[2] is a protective suit with a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR). It consists of a plastic suit and a battery-operated blower with HEPA filters that supplies filtered air to a positive-pressure hood (also known as a Racal hood). Racal suits were among the protective suits used by the Aeromedical Isolation Team (AIT) of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to evacuate patients with highly infectious diseases for treatment.[3][1]
Originally, the hood was manufactured by Racal Health & Safety, a subsidiary of Racal Electronics located in Frederick, Maryland, the same city where AIT was based.[1][4] The division of Racal responsible for the suit's manufacture later became part of 3M,[4] and the respirator product line was branded as 3M/Racal.[5]