Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/958224
cell foam and the outer surface of which was covered with elastic paint. The pad had a trapezoidal shape, wider at the bottom, with rounded corners. The pad was 0.5-inch thick. Initially, pads wer OD with addition of yellow pigment, which was changed to FS 34094 at the end of the 1980s. The pad was available in two versions. Depending on the year, it fits either into older helmets with a narrower sweatband or into newer mod- els that had a wider sweatband. The difference is in the size of the hole for the drawstring of the sweatband. The specification probably changed with the SPO100- 98-F-EA69 (13 November 1997). Pads were produced until SPM100-05-M-4194 (21 April 2005). The retention strap (NSN 8470-01-092-7524) was made from a 27-inch nylon webbing – the same as in the elements fastening the chinstrap to the shell. Both ends of the drawstring had Velcro straps. There was a loop in the middle of the strap and the strap was fas- tened on the rear bolt of the suspension, between the suspension and the the helmet shell. The user had to fasten the strap around the side parts of the chinstrap, under the length adjustment clasps, so that the helmet would be more stable during jumps. The set with a new strap included an additional, slightly smaller bolt. I own a new retention strap from 1993 that is still in OD7. In the second half of the 1990s, probably since the SPO100-96-F-EED1 (1 April 1996), color of the straps was changed to CG483. The production ended after the contract SPO100-01-D-EC34 (6 February 2002). PARACHuTIST IMPACT LINER After the PASGT helmet was introduced for large scale use for airborne ise, it appeared that within the period from 1985 to 1990 the number of injuries during jumps doubled in comparison to previous periods, when M1s were in use. The problem resulted from the pretty good fitting of the helmet to the head and the initially assumed low 0.5-inch standoff. Upon impact, the gap was sometimes too small although a well-fitted and fastened helmet should have not caused such is- sues. Commanding officers of the 18th Airborne Corps and the Army Infantry School announced the demand for a new solution that would allow decrease the trans- mission of forces on the head upon impact by 50% without replacing the helmets with a new model. The U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory inspect- ed all the accidents connected with head injuries. In 277 cases, such injuries usually resulted in dismissal of the soldiers for more than one day, while four acci- dents were fatal. What was even more troubling for the researchers, 89.4% of the incidents ended with loss of consciousness and brain injuries. The proposed solution involved lining the whole interior of the helmet with "Volara A" foam pads with thickness of ~6 mm. Testing involved using the same pads several times as well as replacing them with new ones after each attempt, in order to assess whether the pads should be considered as single-use accesso- ries. A hemisphere with accelerometers was inserted into the helmet and then the helmet was dropped from a height of 30 inches at various angles. Simultaneous tests were conducted for helmets without the pads, for comparison purposes. It appeared that the highest forces were noted in the rear part of the helmet, de- spite the fact that there was already one pad placed in helmets for parachute jumps. Subsequent measure- ments were, respectively, for the front, sides, and top of the helmet. After a series of tests, it was determined that the new par was able to minimize the transmis- sion of forces by 23.8%, but it efficiency would drop to 13.3% after five impacts. It was impossible to as- sess how such additional protection would influence the number of injuries. The researchers also did not achieve the target protection of 50%, yet the pad was introduced for use. The PASGT Helmet Foam Impact Liner, NSN 8465- 01-420-4920 was produced only for the contract SPO100-97-F-EC19 performed in the first half of 1997 (about 130,000 each). It was a foam pad consisting of a central strap and two V-shaped sides. COMFORT PAD One of the general problems of the PASGT helmets was the low comfort of the suspension in long-term use. M1 has a webbing made from comfortable and soft cotton straps (that solution was based on football helmets). The nylon band used in PASGT was definite- ly less comfortable and after several hours the helmet would become an annoying burden. On 23 September 1992, a small foam disc was standardized. It could be attached inside the helmet to the straps of the sus- equipment