They dropped some Hueys' with data link on the dummies. the failure point on the spine to where bones crush..leg bones..hips.
Some solutions were forwarded...shock obsorber seats.
Have wondered myself..if an airbag type device mounted on the skirt or belly of a helo would not reduce the shock loading when the bird crashes. If it works in cars..at least it could minimze injury in regards to helo's.
Having some form of control when a helo drops is possible..but eventually they they just impact and the kinnetic energy starts fracturing things.
During the last half-year I was in Southeast Asia, I was detailed as a classified documents courier while recovering from some minor injuries, essentially a glorified special-delivery mailman. As a result, I rode military aircraft, including helocopters, a lot more than I liked, and had the experience of being a passenger during the crashes of two UH1 Hueys, a Southe Vietnamese H19 Kingbee, and a fixed-wing C7 Caribou, in varying degrees of seriousness. I was not real happy about being in any of the incidents, but any of the four could have been a whole lot worse. Anything that makes such rides a little safer is an improvement in my book, and if you care to offer any ideas toward that end, I'd be glad to consider them in the light of my own admittedly limited experience, but experience that did indeed make a lasting impression on me. We may not come up with anything new, but it can't hurt to try.
Some may comment that the bags would rupture from bullets or fragments...
So use many, smaller bags, fitted with *one way* inflation bags, and dual inflation lines for doing so in the event one of the lines is ruptured or parted. Or instead of expanding each bag via pressurized air or gas, use an electrically-fired cartridge like an auto airbag's, but in a much smaller size.
Hueys were bad because of the forward/low seating of the pilots, who generally got shattered ankles and knees, sometimes thighbones as well, from the forces transmitted into their lower extremities via the rudder pedals when the aircraft hit the ground. You'd have to come up with some way of eliminating that problem for the pilots, but the passengers aboard might at least enjoy such protection. Funny the radios aboard get such swell shock-mounts, with built-in springs and snubbers, but the personnel aboard don't.
I don't think I'd care to find out if a Blackhawk crash is as interesting as one in a Huey. One reason I always liked catching courier rides in the OH-6 *Loach* was that I'd never gone down in one, though I supopose the odds would have caught up with me eventually.
-archy-/-
Keith William Nolan has a great first hand account of how Dewey Canyon II went.[Into Laos ]
Principly..U.S. ferried ARVN into Laos..with a narrow roadnet from Rockpile to the highlands.
Amazing Bravery the Helo crews..and some Phantom pilots.
ARVN lost 50%..most of the firebases overrun...Gods..U.S. helo pilots were leaving with guys hanging on the skids while Charlie overran the hill tops.
Shot to pieces..the Helos..from Loaches to big Sky cranes.
I guess Charlie had the terrain mapped for the Opp...some ARVN puke gave them the opp.
SAMS..triple in quad blocks....like running a gaunlet.
6-8 Helos holed like swiss cheese...some down..and they have only just crossed into Laos.
Guys trapped in mangled wreckage..firing hand guns while charlie puts AK 47 rounds into them..
Next day..more opps..plus trying to get downed crews.
So you have walked away from 4 wrecks...thats amazing.
Make any vows..? : )
A relative went down in the Arctic on oil exploration.
Hit hard and crushed....he crawled out...lucky their flight plan was being followed,,and their wreck was on the track.
after..he refused to fly in helo's in the Arctic.
Shift..was reading about what damage an RPG round can do when it is a dud...
in this weeks time magazine..an account were a dud went in the back of a M113...and sheared off 3 soldiers legs.
I imagine an RPG dud would make a real mess of a Helo...
I'd really like to see the U.S. go to night opps..and do the door kick in thing..and ring the area...blow away anything moving that hasn't a strobe.
I think Rummsy going to do a big Bug Hunt on Sunni triangle when Styrkers..Marines and Special forces come up.
again..hope they tac this night..and really squeeze hard on them..and accept collateral damage,tears and Robert Fisk crying editorials.
Like to see them kick the door in on the Mosque too.
Iraq is hard..but not like Vietnam..where the guy Hunting you had some real talent and was persistent.