By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Air Force pilots will wear custom-made flight gloves beginning next year, the service said Thursday.
A research institute at Konkuk University in Seoul has developed the high-tech leather gloves, which are the first of their kind, it said in a news release.
The gloves will be tailored to precisely fit the hands of each pilot. A ``hand scanner'' will measure the length, width and other characteristics of each pilot's fingers and create a relevant database, the release said.
The data will be transferred to manufacturers.
``The new gloves are designed to help resolve the discomfort of pilots operating aircraft worth of tens of billions of won,'' said Lt. Col. Huh Nam-hee, chief of the Air Force's logistics support team. ``The gloves will also help improve pilots' aircraft operational skills to a great extent.''
Currently, only eight different sizes of gloves are available, he said.
The Air Force plans to create a database of all of its pilots' hand scans by September, the officer added.