This study describes a part of the research, development and testing effort that led to the typical German shape of the more recent U.S. standard helmets (since mid-80's).
It's amusing to see the effort involved (and the duration, apparently - the PASGT helmet wasn't introduced until almost a decade later).
In the end, they arrived at a well-known shape that was basically a simple gut feeling product, created during WWI.
Sometimes a lot of effort and deliberation simply doesn't yield a superior product. Access to decades of advances in material and production technology often does the trick more easily.
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The German helmet looks very much like some of the late Medievel pieces. The Medieval ones were often combined with neck guards, but the shape is a rather obvious one. The British Tommy helmet likewise looks very much like some of the medieval pieces.
ReplyDeleteIt is well known that most helmets of WWI were derived from medieval models and helmets of sappers in the 18th century, however, the helmets of WWI had to protect against completely different threads - most important shrapnels. So the amazing thing for me is that the old shapes also allowed this.
ReplyDeleteUlenspiegel