USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Other

James P Thomas

William R Pogue, Iii

Michael O'Brien

Peter Matic

Christopher J Kindle

Jared N Baucom

Siddiq M Qidwai

A testing apparatus to assess ballistic performance of helmet personnel protective equipment having a flat helmet analogue with a helmet shell material in flat panel form and at least one helmet suspension pad; head surrogate components including a skull skin surrogate, a skull bone surrogate, and a brain tissue surrogate; a pressure indicating film adjacent to the head surrogate components; and one or more pressure sensors in the brain tissue surrogate. Also disclosed is the related method for assessing ballistic performance of helmet personnel protective equipment.

Flat panel test hardware and technology for assessing ballistic performance of helmet personnel protective equipment

A testing apparatus to assess ballistic performance of helmet personnel protective equipment having a flat helmet analog with a helmet shell material in flat panel form and at least one helmet suspension pad; head surrogate components including a skull skin surrogate, a skull bone surrogate, and a brain tissue surrogate; a pressure indicating film adjacent to the head surrogate components; and one or more pressure sensors in the brain tissue surrogate. Also disclosed is the related method for assessing ballistic performance of helmet personnel protective equipment.

A system for actively controlling the span-wise rotational twist of a hollow beam along its longitudinal axis, including a hollow beam structure having a leading edge and a trailing edge region, the beam being split along its length, an actuator arranged between split surfaces of the beam, the actuator adapted to move the split surfaces in a longitudinal direction relative to each other, inducing a twist in the beam. The hollow beam is affixed to an external structure at one or both ends, with only the zero warping displacement points of the beam being attached to the external structure, material or device. In one embodiment, the actuator is a plurality of solid blocks with high thermal expansion coefficients arranged between frames of the split surfaces of the beam, with alternating blocks being heated by resistance heaters to cause expansion in the spanwise longitudinal direction.

Active twist hollow beam system

A system for actively controlling the span-wise rotational twist of a hollow beam along its longitudinal axis, including a hollow beam structure having a leading edge and a trailing edge region, the beam being split along its length, an actuator arranged between split surfaces of the beam, the actuator adapted to move the split surfaces in a longitudinal direction relative to each other, inducing a twist in the beam. In one embodiment, the actuator is a plurality of thermal expansion material blocks alternating with mechanical compression blocks, the thermal expansion material blocks being heated to cause expansion in the spanwise longitudinal direction. Other alternative actuators include a rotary actuators such as a threaded screw, piezoelectric or magnetostrictive blocks, a hydraulic actuator, or a pneumatic actuator. In an embodiment, the beam is an airfoil shape.

A vehicle including at least one bladder for containing a two-phase liquid-gas fuel at a predetermined pressure, with a bladder outlet arranged to releasing vapor fuel from the bladder. The fuel provides energy for propulsion of the vehicle, and the vapor pressure of the fuel provides initial structural integrity of the vehicle, by rigidizing and stiffening the beam assembly to resist inward buckling until the liquid fuel is expended. In an exemplary embodiment, the vehicle is an unmanned aerial vehicle. A combustion chamber and thermoelectric conversion module can generate electricity for a propeller and battery.

Autophagous multifunction structure-power system

A sun guard for a vehicle may be constructed with a darkly tinted transparent acrylic shield to enable a vehicle occupant to comfortably view objects such as a traffic light even while the sun is within nearly the same line of vision, eliminating blinding glare by inhibiting the direct transmission of sunlight to a substantially uniform average of about two to three percent across the visible spectrum. A lighter tinted shield may alternatively be provided with a dark window film covering a major surface of the shield to provide similar visible light transmission characteristics. A clip having at least one double clamp spring pivotally attaches the sun guard to an existing opaque sun visor.

Sun guard

An extendable automobile sun glare shield may be constructed with a body of opaque material with a shield of polaraized material having a film of black glass covering the upper section of the shield slidably disposed to extend and retract from a cavity disposed within the body of opaque material.

Growing community of inventors

Alexandria, VA, United States of America

James P Thomas