It’s well known that cats will always land on their feet when dropped. According to this clip, those cat-like reflexes are completely lost in a weightless environment.

Along with cats, the Airmen fly pigeons in a weightless state, and some of them wound up flying upside down.

The 1947 video was part of the US Air Force’s aerospace-medical-research lab’s bioastronautics research in Dayton, Ohio.

Watch the full 13-minute video here, which includes pretty nifty slow-motion ejection-seat footage (not using cats).