Warplanes: April 20, 2003

Archives

While automobile airbags have drastically reduced traffic deaths in the last three decades, they have only recently been applied to aircraft. Or at least to helicopters. Airbags are not very useful in fast, fixed wing aircraft. But some 80 percent of helicopter accidents are survivable. But 30 percent of the helicopter crash deaths occur in the "survivable" crashes. Thus air bag systems are being installed in U.S. Army UH-60 (Blackhawk) and OH-58 helicopters. Tests showed that the airbag systems reduced crash injuries by nearly 90 percent. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close