Advanced Helmet for Maintainer Head and Hearing Protection Navy SBIR FY2004.3 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2004.3 Topic No.: N04-255 Topic Title: Advanced Helmet for Maintainer Head and Hearing Protection Proposal No.: N043-255-0 Firm: Creare Inc. P.O. Box 71 Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 Contact: Anthony Dietz Phone: (603) 643-3800 Web Site: www.creare.com Abstract: Improved head and hearing protection is required for aircraft maintainers working on a carrier flight deck during launch and recovery operations. The current head protection is inadequate in many aspects including impact protection, hearing protection, cleaning, comfort, and compatibility with night vision goggles (NVGs) and with chemical biological and radiological (CBR) equipment. Creare proposes a new maintainer helmet that meets the needs of today's flight deck crew. The helmet will use advanced materials and innovative fabrication techniques in a design that is based on a recently completed program of intensive testing on the effectiveness of hearing protection components in extreme noise environments. To be effective, the design must resolve the many competing requirements for comfort, weight, and compatibility without reducing hearing protection performance. Creare has the expertise, understanding, test result database, and test techniques to meet this challenge. In Phase I, we plan to design and fabricate a prototype helmet and to measure its impact and hearing protection performance. We will identify approaches to improve comfort, cooling, maintainability and usability, and implement select features in the prototype. In Phase II, we will complete the helmet design, and we will build and test a production version of the helmet. Benefits: The improved head and hearing protection of the helmet will increase the safety of flight deck crew personnel and reduce the incidence of hearing damage, which is a major disability in the DOD, costing more than $350 million per year. Reduced noise levels, improved cooling, and increased comfort will decrease fatigue and increase performance. There is no helmet available today that can meet the attenuation potential of our design. Workers in the airline industry as well as operators of heavy equipment and workers in heavy industry would benefit from this helmet. Return