Office of Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports

FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute


Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-72/7

Title and Subtitle: Evaluation of a fiberglass instrument glare shield for protection against head injury

Report Date: February 1972

Authors: Langston ED, Swearingen JJ

Abstract: An all fiberglass prototype glare shield has been evaluated in terms of head injury protection. In 30-ft./sec. head impacts, a protrusion is designed to fold down over the heavy instruments, offering significant improvement in head injury protection when compared to current aircraft instrument panel design. Design changes to eliminate a fracture point and incorporation of fiberglass glare shields of similar design in future general aviation aircraft could lead to a significant reduction of head injuries during crash decelerations.

Key Words: Crash Safety, Engineering Design, Crashworthiness

No. of Pages: 10

Last updated: Friday, June 1, 2012