Helmets in Culver City Race Film/Aviation impact/Seat belts
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Double check your history of aviation safety equipment, and you'll see it evolved rapidly from the early days. WWI aircraft saw the adoption of restraints, and they varied widely ... some relying on the "Sam Browne Belt" designed to support swords and pistols being clipped into some part of the structure. During the first War, virtually all learned to keep the restraints tied to the structure, not just the seats. CAA and military standards by the '20s mandated attaching safety restraints to structure.? -----Original Message-----
From: <[email protected]> Sent: Oct 20, 2024 9:31 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [RH] Helmets in Culver City Race Film/Aviation impact ? Chuck (and all):
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??? You are absolutely correct about other helmets being used that were similar to the Cromwell design.? I believe there was also an Anderson helmet nearly identical to the ones that you mentioned.
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??? As stated aviation had a big influence on the early full coverage helmets.? In fact there were even surplus "jet pilot" helmets used in racing.? Some of these helmets are identifiable by bulges in the area of the ears where communication speakers would have been installed when worn by pilots.
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???? Aviation also influenced early seat belt usage in race cars.? Seat belts in aircraft weren't really a safety device.? They simply kept the pilot in his seat during various flight maneuvers; even when upside down.? In aircraft the belts were attached to the seat itself.? Many race car builders at the time copied what the military was doing and also mounted early seat belts to the seat instead of the race car frame.? More than one driver was seriously injured or killed while being thrown from a car still fully strapped into his seat after the seat mountings failed.
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Randall Cook
Indianapolis, IN
-- Randall Cook Indianapolis IN USA ? -- Bob Storck KC MO USA |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý Bob:
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??? Thanks for the great aviation information.? And as you say there were some racing applications that weren't good at all.? Formula One drivers were still racing without any restraint systems into the late 1960s.? Here's a photo of Johnnie Tolan and Freddie Agabashian at Indianapolis in 1956 with some kind of seat with the belts mounted to seat itself.? I'm not sure of the origin of this seat.? One of the worst racing crashes where belts were mounted to the seat and not the frame was that of Marshall Teague at Daytona in 1959.? The entire cockpit area was basically intact and the roll bar never got a scratch on it.? But Teague was thrown through the canopy on the Sumar Streamliner and landed 150 feet away on the track still strapped into the seat which had broken from its mountings.
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Randall Cook
Indianapolis, IN
-- Randall Cook Indianapolis IN USA |
Bob Storck
