Visit the NIHF Museum Now to See a Nomex Flight Suit

At the National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Museum, we take pride in telling the stories of the world’s greatest inventors – our Inductees – by putting new exhibits on display each year. We showcase artifacts that bring our Inductees’ journeys to life, helping visitors to see how these inventors turned their ideas into reality.

Read on to learn about our new, limited-time Nomex^® Flight Suit exhibit, and to discover the impact of the Inductee behind it.

What Is Nomex?

Nomex is an important fiber that has been protecting people from heat and flames for more than 50 years.

A synthetic polymer fiber originally called HT-1, DuPont marketed it as Nomex. It’s the best fiber for constructing fire-resistant clothing because when it is exposed to extreme heat, it thickens and carbonizes, absorbing the heat instead of transmitting it to the person wearing it. According to DuPont, “The unique chemical structure of Nomex fibers is non-flammable so performance is built in and it can’t be washed or worn away.”

Nomex proved to be so effective, it was used to create the first inherently fire-resistant protective clothing for U.S. Navy personnel. The other U.S. military branches also began issuing protective clothing made from Nomex, as did fire departments. Nomex fiber also has been used to make a wide variety of civilian clothing too.

When you see the Nomex Flight Suit on display at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum, you’ll get a close look at this remarkable fiber that has protected many people from serious injuries – and it was all made possible by National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee Alice Stoll.

Who Is Alice Stoll?

Stoll was a pioneer in aerospace medicine and a researcher at the Naval Air Development Center who led the development of fire-resistant fabrics in the 1960s.

Born in Long Island, New York, in 1917, Stoll earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics from Hunter College in 1938. Enlisting in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, Stoll was on active duty from 1943 through 1946 before serving in the Reserve for the next 20 years. In 1948, she earned her master’s degree in physiology and biophysics from Cornell University Medical College.

Beginning in the late 1950s, Stoll worked with chemist Maria Chianta to determine the level of heat energy required to cause second-degree burns. They found that the degree of skin damage did not depend on the source of heat, but rather on the elevation in skin temperature and the total exposure time.

At the time, it was common to use fire-retardant treatments on fabrics, but Stoll showed that it was possible, and even preferable, to make fabrics out of fire-resistant fibers. In the early 1960s, she patented a device to test fabrics and measure their properties, including thermal diffusivity, conductivity and flame destruction temperature. The device also measured the fabrics’ ability to insulate against heat, helping to predict the effects on skin beneath one or more layers of the fabric under severe heat conditions. Stoll identified the fiber known as Nomex after testing more than 200 materials!

Stoll retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1966 with the rank of commander in the Medical Service Corps. She served as the head of biophysics and bioastronautics division at the Naval Air Development Center’s Aerospace Medical Research Department until 1980, and she received many honors, including the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award and the Presidential Award Citation for Innovation.

We Hope to See You Soon!

Admission to the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum is always free, and visitors of all ages are sure to find inspiration. To start planning your visit to see our Nomex Flight Suit exhibit and so much more, go to invent.org.