<title>Safety of flight testing for advanced fighter helmets</title>

Abstract

The magnitude of requirements, specifications, testing, and liability associated with producing an item for military use has, no doubt, caused many potential helmet vendors to stay away from the military customer. This is a dilemma for the military as well as the vendors. This paper is an attempt to educate people on the requirements for one aspect of advanced helmet development. That aspect is the Safety-of-Flight requirement. Safety-of-Flight encompasses every aspect of flight to include preflight and post flight. Emergency egress, high-voltage containment, helmet fit, donning and doffing, windblast protection and other aspects of protection during ejection, comfort, aural protection, and compatibility with life support equipment are a few of the items that must be evaluated prior to flying in a multi-million dollar fighter. This paper will highlight the types of testing required with a short explanation of why this testing is necessary as well as what must be accomplished in order to pass the stated requirement.