Abstract: A self-aligning electrical connector is provided for aligning and connecting multiple pins of a male coupler with corresponding multiple pin sockets of a female coupler in a blind environment. A cylindrical standpipe is attached to and extends axially from the female connector. The end of the standpipe remote from the female coupler comprises a ramp or cam sloping to a lug slot in the standpipe that extends toward the female coupler. The male coupler includes a lug comprising a cam follower or roller for following the cam of the standpipe. During connection of the couplers, the action of the cam follower on the cam causes axial rotation of the male coupler until the cam follower engages the lug slot to align the couplers. A jackscrew extending through a longitudinal bore along the axis of the male coupler engages a threaded socket located at the axis of the female coupler to draw the pins of the male coupler into mating connection with the pin sockets of the female coupler.

Abstract: A light dimming system for simultaneously controlling the brightness of a plurality of two-terminal indicating lights, each having one terminal connected to receive a constant voltage relative to ground. The system includes a single dimmer control for producing an arbitrarily variable control voltage, and a like plurality of interface circuits, connected between the dimmer control and the other terminals of the indicating lights, respectively, for varying the voltage at the other terminals of the indicating lights proportional to the control voltage supplied to the interface circuits from the dimmer control.

Abstract: A crashworthy helicopter crew seat, which includes a seat bucket connected to a support structure by an adjustable energy attenuator of the wire bending type. The attenuator includes a frame carried by the seat bucket, three parallel, vertically disposed wires connected at opposite ends to the attenuator frame, and a trolley assembly affixed to the support structure containing three sets of three rollers, rotatable about three vertically spaced horizontal axes, about which the three wires are respectfully bent and unbent as the seat bucket strokes downward during a crash of the helicopter. The lower two rollers of two of these sets of three rollers are displaceable along their axes between an engaged position and a disengaged position relative to a wire associated with these rollers.