The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Here are some General Motors crash tests from the 1960’s. Note how the almost complete absence of modern safety features – airbags, seatbelts, etc. – means that the crash test dummies are exposed to the full force of the impact.
I’m rather glad things have improved since then!
Peter
To appreciate what went into those tests, remember that in those days, the videocams, what with their image orthicon or vidicom vacuum tubes, were almost as expensive as the cars.
I noticed some of the cars have "UCLA" on them. When I went there in the 1970's I learned that UCLA Dept of Engineering had developed a lot of the pioneering crash tests.
In my explorations of the engineering building I came across a vast storeroom of old equipment and test apparatus (apparati?) — including a couple of vintage crash test dummies. Had they not weighed so much I would probably have one now.
Don in Oregon
I was surprised to see how easily the seats broke loose from their mounts.