Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd and QinetiQ
WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESTRAINT SYSTEM
Dr. Michelle Ransley and Mrs Sarah Day
Research is being undertaken by Martin Baker Aircraft Company Ltd (MBA) and QinetiQ Ltd, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, to develop concepts for practical, integrated ejection seat restraint systems. A 2-stage programme of work has been defined to achieve this goal; comparison of the current in service harnesses, leading to the development of future restraint designs.
This paper presents a sample of the results from the first phase
of this research programme. It highlights areas where problems
occurred and how they were overcome, the harness assessments that
have been undertaken and it details the harness tensioning
procedure that had to be developed to enable consistent
strapping-in of the test manikins.
The aim of the first phase of the programme is to identify and
understand the biodynamic interactions of current in-service
restraint systems in order to identify any issues that need
addressing in future restraint system design.
The QinetiQ decelerator track was used to produce 2 idealised ejection phases and a crash scenario. Four restraint types were assessed, the PCU-56/P (family), PCU15/P (family), which are torso harnesses and the Generation 1 and 4 integrated or combined harnesses. The restraint systems were mounted on a strengthened ejection seat structure, which enabled over 77 runs to be carried out at various seat attitudes including +11Gz, -17.5Gxy and -26.5Gxyz. Hybrid III manikin sensor outputs and tracked motion points were collated for each of these runs in order to determine the effect of the harness restraint.
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