To predict the body's strength

Although the active and passive strength of the human body has been of interest for many medical and ergonomic problems, it was the emergence of aerospace medicine which required the fundamental and practical studies that provide today's body of data in this field. After the early pioneering years of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, the last 25 years brought a maturing of the field of biodynamics, its methods, tools, and theoretical foundations. This overview discusses some of these advances, their contributions to aerospace safety, as well as their applications to the broader areas of traffic safety, orthopedic biodynamics, medicine and ergonomics. To meet future aviation as well as societal challenges, steady efforts by a few centers of excellence are required to integrate operational, experimental, and theoretical advances into sophisticated prediction capabilities.