Stars and Stripes reporter in the hot seat
Published: October 27, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Designers are working on a seat for military vehicles that could absorb the impact from bumps and blasts. Made by QinetiQ and with a suspension system made by the company Active Shock, the seat uses a combination of springs and fluid to mitigate the force of an impact.
The seat can tell how much you weigh and calculate how much force it needs to absorb to give you a smooth ride, according to Scott Martino, director of business development for Active Shock.
The design is based on a version of the chair that is being tested on Navy boats, so that sailors don’t have their spines fused when the bow bounces up and comes crashing down in the waves like a bucking bronco.
That chair was on display at this week’s Association of the United States Army convention, which features all kind of futuristic gadgets that companies want to sell the Army. When your friend and humble narrator saw the chair, I was possessed with an unexplainable urge to try it out.
First, I had to sign a waiver that said I would not sue the makers of the chair if I were injured, crippled or maimed so horribly that my mother would cry, “Dear God, what is that thing?” upon seeing me.
Then I was slowly raised 27 inches in the chair and waited to be dropped, feeling a lot like Saddam about to be hanged.
With the pull of a lever, I was dropped and hurtled toward my doom, but the blessed chair has a nine inch spring to absorb the impact, so what would have been a 30G landing ended up being between 2Gs and 3Gs.
I survived the fall unscathed and – more to the point – alive.
My first thought: “I need a cigarette!”
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