Hugh DeHaven

Hugh DeHaven ( born March 3, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York, † February 13, 1980 in Lyme, Connecticut) partly De Haven, was a pilot, engineer and pioneer of accident research.

Training

DeHaven studied at Cornell University ( 1914-15 ) and Columbia University ( 1915-16 ). As part of the mobilization of World War I he enlisted in 1916 in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a volunteer, but was scrapped. At the Royal Canadian Flying Corps, Toronto, Canada, DeHaven was taken and trained in Texas, USA to the pilot.

1917, nor during exercise, while he was flying exercises in a collision with another aircraft involved. In his opinion, was the lap time used, introduced so that the pilots can not fall from the pulpit during flight, the cause of his severe abdominal injuries. The reason for the integrity of the other pilots involved, he could make out the undamaged structure of the cockpit of the aircraft. These two findings were the basis for his later work as an accident investigator.

Inventor

From 1918 to 1933 DeHaven worked as an inventor and engineer for automated machines and fluid couplings. In 1933 he was able to live as well by his inventions that he sat down to rest. 2

Accident researchers

1936 examined DeHaven stability and kinetics of eggs in free fall as a model for plane crashes. 2 The results, together with analyzes of real aircraft accidents, he published in 1942 in the journal War Medicine. DeHaven accidents tried to make " survivable " by the load limits of the human body did not exceed the one hand, on the other hand the people surrounding the structures as hard ( stiff) made ​​that this offered protection in accidents. This is now called passive safety.

In April 1942, DeHaven researcher was at the medical school of Cornell University and taught there a department for road safety, the Cornell Crash Injury Research (CIR ) program. 2

In 1952 he published his most important articles: Accident Survival ( Survival of accidents).

Together with Roger W. DeHaven Grinswold patented in 1955 to today's three-point belt, for those days, a combination of shoulder and lap belt.

Life

DeHaven was married since 1922, his wife died in 1970. 2 He poisoned himself in 1980 deliberately with carbon monoxide.