Fighter pilot helmets- long gone are the days when ace pilots took to the skies with just
a pair of goggles and a leather helmet to protect from the cold.
Nowadays fighter pilots wear helmets that give them nearly god-like powers of perception
from their perches high above the clouds- but what kind of technology is a fighter pilot's
helmet packing, and is it really worth the $400,000 price tag revealed for the F-35's
helmet?
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at what's inside a fighter pilot's helmet.
At a 2015 press briefing, Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark A. Welsh III remarked:
“The hemet is much more than a helmet, the helmet is a workspace.
It's an interpretation of the battle space.
It's situational awareness.
Calling this thing a helmet is really... we've got to come up with a new word.”
It's true that for a fighter pilot modern helmets are indispensable to battlefield success.
Helmets don't just protect the head from accidentally slamming into the cockpit during high speed
maneuvers, modern helmets provide a host of targeting data and sensors that help keep
the pilot in complete awareness of his part of the sky.
But what exactly are these high-tech cranium holsters really packing?
An F-35 pilot's helmet gives its wearer X-ray vision, giving him or her access to six cameras
embedded into the skin of the airplane at the front, rear, and below the airplane.
As the pilot turns their head, the feed is stitched together instantly to allow the pilot
to see straight through the aircraft below them.
Amazing technology we're sure, but probably a little nerve wracking the first time you're
using it since it must feel like you're flying through the air in nothing at all!
Though some detractors have stated that they could get the same picture by simply banking
their planes and looking out the cockpit windows, it's important to note that with a stealth
aircraft changing your airplane's orientation versus incoming radar waves might actually
create a larger return and give you away.
Also the feed is overlaid with important flight path information and pop ups giving info on
ground targets below or ahead.
It's sort of like flying Wonder Woman's invisible plane- but many times deadlier.
The helmet gives its wearer this ultimate x-ray vision by tracking the pilot's head
relative to a magnetic field transmitted from the seat.
As the pilot's head moves, the helmet detects a change in that field and senses new position
and orientation, instantly updating the video feeds.
While early versions of this system caused some lag, new iterations are lag free and
pilots seem to be loving it.
Helmets also provide vital targeting data to a pilot.
Whereas pilots used to rely on heads up displays that were fixed at the front of the cockpit,
new helmets project that data directly onto the helmet itself so a pilot can be looking
anywhere and still have access to vital targeting data.
Helmets patch in forward looking infrared cameras and infrared search and track radar,
providing info on target identity and distance, and if required, even advises on which weapon
currently equipped to use.
This allows a pilot to track, target, and engage an enemy target while scanning his
rear- or 'six'- to make sure he or she isn't being targeted themselves- a huge jump in
capabilities from the days when pilots were locked staring straight ahead to figure out
how to engage an enemy.
Flight helmets such as the F-35's also offers night vision built directly into the helmet
itself, which replaces the traditional system of trying to don night vision goggles while
flying a plane.
By switching between regular vision, night vision, and even thermal tracking, there's
nowhere to hide from an F-35 pilot.
Modern flight helmets also offer picture-in-picture capabilities, letting fighter pilots create
small pop-up windows which display in real time video feed from another fighter in range,
or perhaps from a friendly UAV secretly loitering over an enemy.
With a target represented by a symbol in the fighter pilot's helmet, all they have to do
is physically look at that target symbol and a miniature video feed of the target will
then pop up for them, helping pilots decide whether to engage their target or not.
But vision is only part of what a helmet does.
With reinforced kevlar designs, modern flight helmets are all but bulletproof and help protect
a pilot's head during extreme maneuvers or emergency ejections.
To protect their hearing and help them focus better, they also offer active noise reduction
that silences ambient din.
They also use spatial audio technology to increase a pilot's situational awareness-
if for instance a pilot is targeted from the left, an audio ping from that earpiece will
let them know.
All that technology doesn't come cheap- as mentioned an F-35 helmet costs approximately
$400,000 a piece, and includes a lengthy fitting process that makes each helmet specifically
built for individual pilots.
A 3d scan of the pilot's head is entered into a database, from which technicians design
software that drives milling machines to cut the foam liner by laser.
A pilot then has their eyes measured with a pupilometer to align the optics package
to within just two millimeters of the center of each pupil- this ensures that the images
projected converge onto the pilot's natural field of view, which in turn helps reduce
eye strain and fatigue.
Pilots then must return for a final fitting of the liner so that the visor and its display
feeds are adjusted to ensure only a single fused image appears- otherwise a pilot may
have double or triple vision from misaligned video feeds.
Technicians then spend two days to shape the helmet liner to each individual pilot's noggin
to ensure the optical sensors are perfectly aligned with the pilot's pupils.
These careful measurements also ensure that the helmet rests on the pilot's head in such
a way that its center of gravity is perfectly aligned with the pilot's spine in order to
prevent neck injuries during ejections or high speed maneuvers.
All these careful and precise measurements basically make helmets unuseable except by
the specific pilot they were developed for, meaning that investing in an F-35 is not just
an investment in the aircraft itself, but in its pilot too.
But with as cool a job as piloting the world's most advanced aircraft, we're sure there's
no threat of any of these pilots getting bored and quitting anytime soon.
Are these $400,000 helmets really worth the price tag, or are they just another money
sink in the world's most expensive weapons program?
What other military tech would you like explained?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video Worst Punishments In The History of Mankind.
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