Airman 50th Percentile Live Fire Dummy - 124-0000

 

The U.S. Congressional Live Fire Testing National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1987 prompted First Technology Safety Systems, Inc. to develop the Airman Dummy. The Act required survivability and lethality testing on weapons systems and munitions programs.

The Airman Dummy was designed to trap ballistic fragments impacting personnel in combat simulations. The fragments may be from ordinance, military equipment, or gear that has spalled or shattered due to ballistic impact. Information gathered using this dummy may be employed in design and testing of equipment and protective gear for combat personnel.

The Airman Dummy is a 50th Percentile Male anthropomorphic dummy in height. Its weight is approximately 1/3 that of the person its height simulates. Since the dummy is not designed for crash testing, the low weight is not important, and in fact makes the dummy easier to handle.

Ballistic fragments are trapped in the urethane body. Chipping of the paint helps to locate the impact points as its color contrasts to the urethane foam. Calibrations may be done on the foam to determine fragment impact velocity.

The dummy has articulated joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles. All joints except the shoulders and hips are pin joints allowing single axis rotary motion. The shoulders incorporate two rotations and a flexible member for added motion range. The hip joints have one rotation on a flexible shaft, which allows lateral motion. The articulation allows the dummy to be used standing or to be placed in military equipment in various operational positions.

Construction

The Airman's body parts are molded from rigid urethane foam (light tan color) painted spectrum white. The foam density is approximately 1/3 that of water yielding a dummy weight far below the 50th percentile as mentioned above.

The dummy has articulated joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.

All joints except the shoulders and hips are pin joints allowing single axis rotary motion. The shoulders incorporate two rotations and a flexible member for added motion range. The hip joints have one rotation on a flexible shaft which allows lateral motion. The articulation allows the dummy to be used standing or to be placed in military equipment in various operational positions.

Use and Calibration

Ballistic fragments are trapped in the urethane body. Chipping of the paint helps to locate the impact points as its color contrasts to the urethane foam. The track of the ballistic fragment in the foam is used to determine its incoming direction and velocity. Calibration may be done by the customer with known particle masses and velocities with shapes similar to those impacting the dummy in the live fire test. The consistency of the foam density enables the relationship of incoming fragment velocity to track length in the dummy to be determined.

Product Verification

FTSS manufacturing and inspection procedures result in high quality machined and molded parts. Procedures include certification of materials, verification of dimensions, and inspection of overall appearance of finished components.

The following measurements are performed on each Airman Dummy:

• Foam Density Measurement of each finished part.
• Weight of each part.
• Assembled dimensions of complete dummy.

First Technology Safety Systems, Inc. gives careful attention to designing, manufacturing and testing state of the art anthropomorphic test devices. This attention to detail ensures that the customer receives an Airman Dummy known for its reliability, durability, repeatability and reproducibility.