Abstract: An individual protective equipment for use in a hostile environment comprises a closed suit including a flexible gas-tight garment and a helmet having a transparent visor and having a gas-tight connection with the garment. The equipment also includes a portable tank for storage of liquefied breathing gas and a heat exchanger having a primary circuit whose inlet is connected to an outlet of the storage tank and whose outlet feeds a breathing circuit. A gas motor is connected to receive a flow of breathing gas evaporated in the primary circuit and delivers the flow to the breathing circuit. A blower driven by the motor is inserted in a garment ventilation circuit including the secondary circuit of the exchanger.

Abstract: The individual equipment for use when taking action in a noxious atmosphere comprises a pressure suit having a flexible garment (10) and a helmet (12) provided with a transparent visor and including a self-contained breathing apparatus for supplying breathing gas from a gas supply. The face is separated from the garment by a neck gasket (16). The supply (24) is connected to a breathing circuit that opens out into the helmet via a regulator (48) to maintain the volume around the face at a pressure higher than that in the garment. The equipment also includes a face mask (52) having a valve for breathing in from the helmet and pipework for breathing out directly to the outside via rated non-return means.

Abstract: A head equipment comprises a component such as a helmet connectable to the head of a wearer and movable by the wearer in a limited field, with at least five degrees of freedom. It comprises an arm constituted by articulated segments giving the component at least five degrees of freedom with respect to the fixed structure and linking the component to a fixed structure.

Abstract: An individual breathing equipment comprises a head covering provided with a neck joint defining a space which is separated from the outside all around the head and a mask for isolating the respiratory tract. The mask is provided with a breath-in valve and with a breath-out valve exhausting directly to the atmosphere. The breathable gas feed circuit opens into the space defined by the head covering. The outlet of the feed circuit and the outlet of the breath-in valve for taking air from said space are so located that the breathable gas ventilates the head before reaching the breath-in valve. A buffer volume is placed upstream of the opening into said space, defined by a breastplate.

Abstract: A helmet sight comprises a collimator for projection of the image of a sighting graticule into the ocular field of the wearer of the helmet and sensors for measurement of the angular position of the helmet with respect to a structure, such as the cockpit of an aircraft. The collimator for projection gives the graticule a position whose angular deviation .DELTA.a, .DELTA.b with respect to a reference orientation linked to the helmet has remained an increasing function of the angular displacements of the helmet with respect to the reference structure.

Abstract: A protective breathing equipment for a crew member of an aircraft comprises a demand regulator supplied with pressurized oxygen and with dilution air taken from the living space of the crew. The regulator is connected to a breathing mask for the crew member. A protective hood supplied with filtered ventilation air is provided for location over the head of the crew member. The regulator has a housing containing the regulating mechanisms and an intake for dilution air and is surrounded by a case defining a protective space about the housing. The space is fed with filtered air under an overpressure of the same order as that which prevails in the hood.

Abstract: A combined inhalation/exhalation valve for use on a breathing mask for high altitude flights comprises a housing carried by the mask and connectable to a demand regulator. A one-part diaphragm located in the housing controls gas flow. The diaphragm has a cup whose bottom wall is provided with a radial lip seal cooperating with an exhalation seat. The cup is annular. It defines a tore-shaped chamber subjected to the compensation pressure, e.g. to the pressure which prevails in the exhalation line of the regulator connected to the valve. The bottom wall of the cup is further provided with a lip constituting the movable element of an inhalation valve.

Abstract: The quick attachment device for the harness of a piece of equipment, which can be used to attach an oxygen mask to an aviator's helmet, comprises a receiver member adapted to receive a bayonet member securely connected to the harness. The bayonet member cooperates with the receiver member via locking means which can be retracted by pulling on a control plate which is carried by the bayonet member and can slide thereon. The bayonet member is formed by a solid blade bearing a rack engaging with retractable locking fingers provided on the receiver member and the control plate comprises notches which have the same pitch as those of the rack, and whose profile is such that they displace the resilient fingers out of the rack when the control plate is pulled, in the direction corresponding to the withdrawal of the bayonet member, from the abutment position into which it is resiliently urged.

Abstract: The device, which can be used to protect the pilots of high performance aircraft against the effect of accelerations, comprises a garment having at least trousers having pockets and a control member which supplies the pockets with compressed gas when the downwardly directed acceleration of the body exceeds a predetermined threshold. The control member is adapted to establish in the trouser pockets an overpressure from a positive acceleration threshold (BC), in accordance with a substantially linear law of variation from an origin (A) corresponding to a negative acceleration. The action of the compressed gas can be supplemented by that of a liquid contained in the pockets and also subjected to the pressure of the gas.

Abstract: A breathing and acceleration protection apparatus for the pilot of a fighter aircraft includes a source of pressurized respiratory gas (typically a liquid oxygen converter) and an anti-g regulator valve means fed by the source and connected to inflatable trouser pockets of a g-suit carried by the pilot. A demand regulator delivers respiratory gas to the pilot. The anti-g regulator valve includes an inertia body movable responsive to acceleration along a predetermined direction for increasing the pressure in the pockets and when an amount of acceleration in excess of 2 g is sensed. Additional means responsive to the aircraft altitude establish a static pressure in the pockets at a value which increases with altitude in the absence of acceleration.