![]() ![]() If we don’t have that helmet stabilized and protected from the airstream, there will be an immediate neck injury and probably a fracture.” With the ACES 5, you can feel free to shoot out of your plane at 690 mph. (The former F-16 pilot still goes by his callsign, Barney.) “It’s not spherical anymore, thanks to all the technology inside of it. “Just 15 years ago, helmets were spherical and aerodynamic shells,” says John Fyfe, UTC’s director of Air Force programs. That lets it accommodate the larger high-tech helmets like those used in the F-35 as well as accessories like night vision goggles. It starts with a helmet support system that automatically extends and retracts during an ejection, catching the heavy helmet like a ball in a baseball glove. He’s the head of aircraft escape system engineering at UTC Aerospace Systems, the defense contractor that built this latest system, called the ACES 5. Now the Air Force expects its pilots to be able to walk away from an ejection, start training again, and be back in action right away,” says John Hampton. “In the past, simply surviving an ejection was considered a good enough standard. Now, another new ejection system meets even stricter safety standards, works with today’s gear-laden helmets, and further expands the pool of eligible pilots climbing into the B-2 stealth bomber and future airplanes that will also use the system. The situation improved a few years ago with the Martin-Baker MK 16 seat, which allows pilots weighing as little as 103 pounds and as much as 245 pounds to eject from the F-35 fighter jet at 65,000 feet. In fact, ejection seat capabilities have been limiting pilot selection for decades, to the disappointment of countless would-be aviators and the frustration of military commanders desperate to fill increasingly empty cockpits. And pilot size and weight restrictions aren’t written to limit who can stuff themselves inside a tight cockpit, but who can be blasted out of one. Some ground vehicles are sized not necessarily for battlefield functionality, but rather to fit inside the cargo airplanes that will take them to said battlefield. ![]() The American military has a funny way of thinking about size.
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