F1 Engineers Assessment Jet Canopies

Formula 1 engineers have been contrast out either warrior jet canopies may be used on F1 cars to upgrade safety.

The FIA, the organization in assign of world engine sport, carried out the examination at its systematic institute.

F1 cars already go a long way to safeguard drivers from 200mph crashes, pile-ups and somersaults.

But these ultimate tests are especially written to find out if canopies would help safeguard them from waste on the track.

Two years ago Felipe Massa suffered a brain damage and fractured skull after being strike by a steel spring during subordinate is to Hungarian Grand Prix.

The size of a person's fist, the spring had advance lax from other driver's automobile and slammed in to Massa's steel sheet at more than 125 miles per hour.

At the time group team leader Ross Brawn said: "We must be ready what's happened and comprehend it properly.

"It is time to look at the entire thing and take a offset approach.

"You can have covers or canopies but you have to be able to obtain at the motorist and remove him if there is an accident."

That's precisely what these tests have been written to find out.

Andy Mellor is the FIA Institute's technical director.

"We have essentially been seeking in to the scholarship and engineering of safeguarding the cockpit from assertive waste that can come in that space," he said.

So he and his group took to Bentwaters landing field nearby Ipswich with two tests in mind.

The initial entangled a polycarbonate windscreen, the second an F-16 warrior jet awning done from areospace-spec polycarbonate.

Then a conventional Formula 1 circle and tyre, weighing 20kg, was dismissed in to both at 140mph.

"It's an exceedingly precisely calibrated set-up," mentioned Mr Mellor.

"Quite a lot of engineering has vanished in to it."

There were 3 firings is to two experiments, two at the windscreen and a at the canopy.

"The equipment worked immaculately but visually it was probable to see that the windshield did succeed to inhibit the circle over the space that would be assigned by the driver's helmet, but in so carrying out it postulated poignant damage," he said.

It was a not similar story from the F-16 awning even though that survived the assessment total and simply deflected the tyre away.

As for what happens with the results of these tests, Mr Mellor said: "This assessment was quite to look in to the automatic safety effect.

"Now that you have information on that, you can pierce towards a preference on what's next."

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