NECK STRESS IN FIGHTERS DURING AIR COMBAT TRAINING
I spent many years doing legal ACM in Hunters, Harriers and Starfighters, (plus some illegal stuff in clean Tornado GR1s) and back in the 70s-80s the aviation medic fraternity continually denied us lightweight helmets to alleviate neck loads.
The average male human head weighs about 11 lb, plus about 4lb for the Mk3 helmet equals 15lb, thus pulling a steady 6g the load on your neck is around 90 lb. That doesn’t sound too bad if you can brace the neck muscles and just keep your head still. However, in ACM you are continually twisting your head around to keep tabs on what’s going on around you. Back in the day I regularly pointed this out to the aviation medics but they weren’t interested. All they seemed to be care about was optimum crash protection.
They were always unimpressed by my argument that my chances of crashing and needing that level of protection to survive were not high: – in the majority of crashes in those days no amount of head protection would have saved the aircrew. However, I would be pulling a steady 6-7g most days I flew, with consequent stress on my neck.
What kind of permanent damage would that have done to my neck?
ExMM