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US 5,039,035 AGranted
Helmet assembly with inflatable actuators
AssigneeSmiths Industries Public Limited Company
InventorRoger S. Fitzpatrick
Life of this patent
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AssigneeSmiths Industries Public Limited Company
InventorRoger S. Fitzpatrick
Estimating the term…
A helmet for aircrew in a highly manueverable aircraft has six air bags which are inflated or deflated by a control system so as to counteract acceleration forces on the wearer's head and helmet. Two pairs of air bags engage the wearer's body, and two bags engage the seat headrest so that restoring forces in yaw, pitch and lateral directions can be applied. A position sensor determines the actual position of the helmet which is compared with the predicted position, as derived from an inertial sensor or inputs from the aircraft flight control system, the difference between these two positions being used to control operation of the air bags. A memory module programmed with information about the behavior of the wearer's head and helmet characterizes the control system to the particular wearer and is removable for use in other systems.
A helmet assembly comprising a helmet, a first pair of inflatable actuators located on one side of the helmet, one actuator of the first pair being located in front of the other, a second pair of inflatable actuators located on the opposite side of the helmet, one actuator of the second pair being located in front of the other, a third pair of inflatable actuators located on the rear of the helmet, one actuator of the third pair being located to one side of the other, a source of pressurized gas, valve means connected between said source and said actuators, and control means connected with said valve means such that a restoring force in yaw, pitch and lateral directions can be applied to the helmet under control of said control means by inflation of appropriate ones of said actuators.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.