NASA developing an airbag for helicopters — for the entire 'copter
NASA’s “deployable energy absorber” may appear to be a couple of oversized sponges attached to the bottom of a helicopter, but you could be looking at a safety system that helps occupants survive a helicopter crash — or even any kind of air-to-ground impact.
It’s a bit like an airbag for helicopters, one that NASA aerospace engineer Karen Jackson, one of the driving minds behind the project, said of the technology that she’d “like to think the research we’re doing is going to end up in airframes and will potentially save lives.”