why are new military flight helmets so bulged looking??

[tom d. friedman]

why are new military flight helmets so bulged looking??? the visors look like bubbles, & the portion at forehead level looks more pronounced than frankenstein's eye brows!!! not to asthetically pleasing compared to past flight helmets, but i guess uncle sam has his reasons.

[A36pilot]

The new helmets have HUDs built into them

[Randy Haskin]

The ones being used currently in the US are a standard HGU-55 helmet with the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System mounted on the front. That is a helmet-mounted "gunsight" that cues weapons and displays HUD-type information right on the helmet visor.

Most "future" helmets, such as the one for the F-35, are being developed with this same technology.

[tom d. friedman]

randy, i was hoping you would chime in. you state the new helmets are being used in this country. does that mean they are not issued to those who are currently serving over seas?? if so, why??

[sgt hawk]

Saw an article either on the Military Channel or Local News(gettin old can't remember) about the new Helmets yesterday. Like Randy says they have a self contained HUD and you can target any enemy (ground or air) with your weapons, that you can see. However, one of the problems that comes with the technology is the Pilot becoming absorbed with processing the miriad of information being presented to him and becoming disoriented. They cost in excess of $100,000 per helmet.

[Matt Gunsch]

maybe the helmets are getting bigger because of the pilots ego causing the head to swell.

[P51Mstg]

YUP and the warbird pilots will be wearing them starting this season to look cool.........

Mark H

[tom d. friedman]

i guess my helmet collecting days have reached an end for the 21st century era at 100 grand a pop i don't think any pilots will be taking them home as souvineers of their service at that price.

[P51Mstg]

Trust me, they will still be "losing them" and otherwise making them available on the market...... However, I think what we will see is that the military will be looking a lot closer at things that appear on the civilian market.....

Also if there is a demand, I can see the manufacturer making non-functioning demo units available for sale to collectors at a greatly reduced price.......

Back in the olden days, I bought a legitmate civilian pair of night vision goggles from ITT, which were the same ones they supplied to the military for flying (Trust me, they will still be "losing them" and otherwise making them available on the market...... However, I think what we will see is that the military will be looking a lot closer at things that appear on the civilian market.....

Also if there is a demand, I can see the manufacturer making non-functioning demo units available for sale to collectors at a greatly reduced price.......

Back in the olden days, I bought a legitmate civilian pair of night vision goggles from ITT, which were the same ones they supplied to the military for flying (AN/AVS-9?). We used to use them flying the AS350 over the mountains here at night, JUST in case. Better to have the goggles than not. They were something over $10k to buy, but made me feel a lot safer.... The helicopter is gone and I haven't used them in years. One of these days I'm gonna dig them out of the vault and sell them.


Mark H

[Bill Greenwood]

Could be that pilots are smarter than they used to be? Nah, not likely.
Could be their egos are bigger as Matt said? Bigger than CY, nah not likely.

Could be the defense contractor gets a bigger markup and slice of the pie with the more expensive technology? And the factory employs more voters and so on down the line?

[sgt hawk]

Inability to process the techno-info that is being thrown at pilots today and the trend toward unmanned aircraft is going to drive up the collectability price on these helmets i.e., there won't be a whole bunch manufactured.
It certainly seems like the Future Pilot is headed toward obsolescents.

[Randy Haskin]

randy, i was hoping you would chime in. you state the new helmets are being used in this country. does that mean they are not issued to those who are currently serving over seas?? if so, why??

I was really just referring to the US pilots flying with the JHMCS. There are pilots from other countries flying with other versions of helmet-mounted sights made in other countries outside the US.

[Nathan]

I like the old 50's helmets. Those were cool.

[gary1954]

I have my ols SPH-4 Flight Helmet from when I was in aviation maintenance, need to repair/replace the headphones as they have kinda fell apart from none usage over the past 25 years