While I was drawing Nikau in his full uniform and armor, I decided I should also draw Domurin, my Bonturi (Space Binturong) kinda-alternate-sona, Domec's other army buddy and Lightbearer Dominion pilot, showing off his military attire as well. 

Find Me On:
FurAffinity ◈ Weasyl ◈ Ko-Fi ◈ Inkbunny

I have yet to decide what, exactly, the device on his chest is, but I imagine it's some sort of interface for life support equipment. As the device is attached to a harness of sorts, it's likely that most life support and air supply equipment is modular and can be added or removed as needed based on the individual pilot's needs and what the mission requires, perhaps with some wires running through the harness straps to ports on the back that will in turn connect to any sort of life support equipment that might be added, enabling him to monitor and control things like airflow with relative ease.

However, being primarily a shuttle/transport pilot, Domurin doesn't often wear a typical pilot's helmet with breathing equipment or a full pilot's jumpsuit with life support functionality, as transport ships and shuttles are typically equipped with their own on-board life support and climate control systems.

Talking with a friend of mine off and on, the subject of pilots and their gear comes up every so often, and I am forced to disappoint him by informing him that my approach to this all is far more "Star Wars" than realistic--most starships have life support systems and pressurized, climate-controlled cabins and cockpits, and a lot of what I do is just designed to look cool or look the part, with the actual functionality of it all being something I think about afterwards. It is actually quite fun at times to look at aesthetic choices I've made and then try to justify them after the fact, as it makes me build upon ideas or come up with new, interesting ideas that I may not have had initially.

Of course, the subject of ejecting from a damaged vehicle has also come up, but given how things work, I get the feeling any pilot ejected from their vehicle in space would be SOL whether they have a proper space-capable flight suit and life support equipment or not. Assuming they were somehow able to survive their ship being damaged or destroyed to the point where they'd have to eject in the first place, any space battlefield is going to be littered with debris and likely have all manner of projectiles flying around, and then of course there would be the issue of finding an ejected pilot amongst all the debris to rescue them, assuming it were possible to launch any sort of rescue mission in time... It seems to be an unwritten and unspoken rule, something that most pilots acknowledge and understand and try not to think about, that any flight could be their last and if their ship is destroyed they'll be going with it.