Crash and Ballistic Protective Flight Helmet

The U.S. Army Natlck Laboratories has developed a helmet to upgrade head protectio~ for Army aviators. This helmet exhibits greater impact energy-dissipating characteristics than other military helmets and also provides resistance to penetration by ballistic fragments. While the Army's new helmet has the same configuration as the Navy's APH-6 and Air Force HGU-2A/P helmets, increased protection is achieved by making its shell of laminated nylon fabric instead of laminated glass cloth. Impact energy attenuation is further increased by lining the shell with x/2-inch thick, four-pound density, expanded polystyrene plastic. Subjected to two successive impacts of 160 foot-pounds in the same area, there was no evidence of bottoming, nor were accelerative forces in excess of 300 G's measured on an instrumented headform. Duration of impacts was not less than 6.0 milliseconds. The glass cloth helmet impacted with only 100 foot-pounds imparted 300 and 600 G's, with duration of impacts not exceeding 4.0 milliseconds.