This posting initially showcased on Task & Intent.
Most men and women update their wardrobe each individual after in a when, and after 40 yrs, the Air Force is on the lookout to do the exact same with one of the most critical parts in its catalog: the helmet aircrew users dress in although accomplishing the critical, often perilous missions necessary of them.
After numerous years of seeking, the Air Pressure declared on June 25 that it had picked a enterprise to move forward with prototype development for a new flight helmet that could turn out to be conventional concern for preset-wing aircrew associates throughout the support (except for F-35 pilots, who have their own $400,000 helmet). Although the Air Force did not give the helmet a specific name in its press release, Carry Airborne Technologies, the company behind it, phone calls it the AV 2.2 Next Generation Preset Wing Helmet. The helmet is mentioned to be lighter, much better ventilated, and more adaptable to helmet-mounted equipment than the gray HGU-55/P helmets crews have worn since the 1980s.
When the new helmet continue to has to bear additional investigate, tests, and improvements, Air Drive officers appeared excited about selecting it for prototype growth. The legacy helmet currently in use “was not at first designed to support advancements in aircraft helmet-mounted display screen units,” Scott Cota, an aircrew flight equipment method analyst for Air Fight Command, mentioned in a press launch. These units include weight to the helmet and modify its heart of gravity, which qualified prospects to soreness for air crew associates. That pain is not just annoying: it is a extended-time period health chance that has finished the career of a lot of an expensively trained aviator.
The previous 55/P helmet weighs 2.2 lbs, in accordance to manufacturer Gentex. Though that sounds mild, it adds up when pilots pull nine times that pounds in a substantial-G maneuver. The average weight of a human head is about 10 or 11 lbs, so that, moreover the helmet, equals about 120 pounds or far more of fat sitting down on your neck at nine Gs.
“Not only is that unpleasant to be beneath nine Gs when you are traveling, but the largest difficulty is later on in your career when pilots start owning neck and back again issues,” said Air Power F-35 and F-16 fighter pilot Maj. Justin “Hasard” Lee in a video about aircrew helmets. “I know however a lot of pilots that have had to be medically retired mainly because of that.”
American pilots are not the only types who deal with this difficulty. According to a 2012 analyze, 72 percent of surveyed Royal Norwegian Air Pressure pilots expert neck discomfort in relation to traveling, while 35 percent professional again agony. Neck rotation was a significant trigger of grief for the pilots, specifically “checking 6,” which means to look behind them, the review identified. To support maintain its dwindling quantity of fighter pilots in the services, the US Air Force actually contracts athletic trainers, power coaches and therapeutic massage therapists to support pilots much better prepare their bodies for the pressure of G-drive.
“The notion at the rear of the program is the preventive maintenance,” claimed F-15C pilot Maj. Clayton “Red Beard” Cruichshank about a physical coaching program at Nellis Air Force Base previous April. “Rather than ready until eventually a person has a again or neck trouble, we’re currently training to be stronger right before troubles occur, so we’re far better in a position to handle the stresses.”
The extended-phrase neck and back again health and fitness of aviators was a single rationale why the Air Force began looking for a new helmet. Guido Rietdyk, CEO of Carry Airborne Technologies, stated the purpose “is to have the helmet not exceed 2.2 lbs in any measurement or configuration,” which could be terrific if “any configuration” consists of the weight of helmet-mounted equipment. Aviators have a large amount of gear they normally have to mount to their helmets to do their careers. For instance, fighter pilots use the Helmet Mounted Cueing Technique, which exhibits flying and focusing on information on a heads-up screen on the pilot’s visor. For evening flying, they also have on evening-vision goggles, but switching amongst the two with the outdated helmet was a actual headache.
“I’ve flown a ton of evening beat missions,” Lee stated. “The point was, you’d fly with the HMCS, until eventually it bought dark, you’d have to choose off the helmet, consider off the HMCS method, place on a bracket, place on your evening eyesight goggles, and so that was a whole system.”
Which is a dilemma when you are flying a near air support mission for ground troops below fireplace who really do not have time for you to change your headgear.
“That’s time you are having absent from the troops on the ground,” Lee mentioned. “So being ready to streamline that system is vital.”
The Future Technology Set Wing Helmet can make it easy to attach the NVGs, with no additional bracket demanded, Lee stated.
Yet another explanation why the Air Force went looking for a new helmet is the fact that a lot of of its aviators nowadays do not appear the same as their 1980s predecessors. Capt. Timothy James, a program supervisor at the Air Force Daily life Cycle Management Heart, mentioned that the new helmets will offer a “better in shape for operators of all measurements, genders and ethnicities.”
Helmet in shape appears to be a challenge for many aviators donning the previous 55/Ps.
“The present 55/Ps are horrible!” 1 C-17 cargo jet pilot instructed Task & Purpose in December. “Mine has under no circumstances match right considering the fact that pilot schooling,” he extra. On major of that, the old helmets are swampy pits following a extended flight.
“They don’t breathe at all,” he claimed. “It’s a enormous reduction when we get to choose off the helmet right after a flight or during pilot swap out.”
A navigator aboard a WC-130J temperature reconnaissance aircraft shared his opinion of the outdated helmets. Like the C-17 pilot, Withee and his fellow WC-130J aviators do not have to wear helmets really usually, but when they do, it’s not the most pleasurable expertise.
“For me it doesn’t healthy fantastic around the ears so it doesn’t do a terrific occupation with isolating sounds,” claimed Lt. Col. Mark Withee, a navigator with the 53rd Reconnaissance Squadron, in December. “After a even though it’s also very awkward with the way it is squishing my head.”
The new helmets feel to deal with both equally the concerns with suit and ventilation. Lee, the F-35 pilot, said the new brain bucket has a handful of knobs for changing different pieces of the headwear so it suits just correct. The pilot also customized-fitted the helmet on his personal using an in-depth app that arrives with it, he claimed.
A comfortable in shape is far more than a creature consolation. Getting a helmet jostle all over in the center of a mission could be a possibly harmful distraction. There are also particular heads-up screen resources these types of as the Helmet Mounted Cueing Procedure, exactly where the pilot’s eyes have to be centered effectively for him or her to see the signals within.
“They actually did a great task,” Lee mentioned of the Carry helmet, which also has vents in the again in which sticky air can go out. “The helmet has this dynamic in shape system which suggests it is a good deal additional cozy than the old helmet.”
Healthy, ventilation and devices apart, one more neat gimmick that the new helmet has is a pair of lights mounted to the sides. Individuals lights help aviators examine maps or other files in flight, but the definitely great portion is how you change it on. In the earlier, pilots introduced flashlights to study flight files, but that intended they experienced to consider a hand off their flight controls to maintain the flashlight. Some pilots tried out strapping lights to their fingers, or donning tongue-activated lights on their oxygen masks, but Lee discovered those alternatives clunky or unappealing. This new helmet is activated by a button which the aviator presses by clenching his or her jaw muscle mass. There are distinct activation configurations pilots can decide on, but Lee demonstrated working with a quick clench, adopted by a extensive clench, to activate the pair of lights on his helmet.
“I was skeptical about this at initially, but it truly will work surprisingly properly,” Lee reported. “It’s almost certainly the finest remedy that I’ve located to lighting up the cockpit.”
The helmet doesn’t just glow a gentle, it also blocks out loud engine noise, Lee reported, which is “huge” on a six to eight hour mission.
LIFT’s helmet emerged in advance on leading of more than 100 distinct style and design thoughts the Air Force acquired due to the fact it first started functioning on a substitution in 2019. In reality, it was a person of the 1st initiatives to go by means of AFWERX, an Air Pressure group devoted to doing work with more compact “nontraditional” defense firms to support make their suggestions a actuality, the Air Force claimed in its push launch.
If the helmet passes the future stage of research and tests, the Air Pressure will provide a production agreement in 2024. Right after that, Air Combat Command options on utilizing a phased approach to produce the new equipment to set-wing aircrews throughout the support, commencing with the F-15E Strike Eagle.
“Every tiny piece of gear you have, you want to make guaranteed it is up-to-date so you can be as deadly and capable as feasible,” Lee explained. “They’ve long gone by this helmet and produced anything seamless for the pilot.”
