Improved earpieces reaching Falcon pilots

  • Published
  • By Shad West
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (AFPN) --  F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots here will soon start using an earpiece that will afford better hearing protection and an improved mission focus.

The 4th Fighter Squadron's "Fighting Fuujins" will receive the new attenuating custom communication earpiece system this month. The earpiece was developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, by the Battle Space Acoustics Department. The department is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate.

"The new system should increase communication intelligibility for our pilots," said Capt. Eydin Hansen, aerospace physiologist with the 75th Aerospace Medicine Squadron. "Pilots are using foam earplugs and headsets with speakers that offer eight to 12 decibels of protection, while sacrificing communication intelligibility."

Currently, pilots are having a hard time hearing tones -- many associated with air traffic and ground-based controllers.

The new earplug system costs less than $600 per person and is made from deep ear canal impressions from the pilots. It has a speaker system similar to that used with an iPod, ultimately providing better clarity and 25 to 30 decibels of protection.

This technology was initially designed for ground crews and then adapted for F-22A Raptor pilots. Hill pilots are excited to be using the next generation of hearing protection and communications devices in the F-16, officials said.

Capt. Dax Cornelius, a 4th Fighter Squadron demonstration team member, said that while performing he experiences violent negative and positive G-forces and most of the time his earplugs tend to fall out.

"We'll be flying with one plug in and one out," he said. "It can be very distracting to have the radio blast in one ear and not in the other. This new system is really going to allow us to focus on the mission rather than the peripherals."

(Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)