F1technical.net

riff_raff wrote:Supersonic jet bubble canopies are actually incredibly strong. They are designed for resisting the impact of a large bird at 1500mph. They are made from something like Lexan, and are usually quite thick, up to 1 inch thick in some areas.

I don't know if this idea would be feasible in practice, but it's definitely worth some study. There are several racing incidents that come to mind, where this device may have been helpful. Felipe Massa, Christiano DeMatta, Aryton Senna......

1500 mph is way way off, that's almost Mach 2. I've seen a duck sized bird obliterate an F-18 windscreen that was flying at less than 300 knots. That's almost 350 mph, and of course Formula 1 cars don't go nearly that fast, but birds are squishy, a wheel & tire assembly isn't. Those windscreens and canopies are many layers of material and they shatter upon breaking and leave extremely sharp and jagged edges. There's not a very good equivalent of car safety glass in canopies and windscreens that I've seen. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist though.

That test in the video is heavily biased towards rubber side impact. That's pretty much a best case scenario and not at all representative of a real world impact, and in my opinion completely worthless. There's nothing in that test that could start a stress fracture, like a wheel scratching the transparency when it hits, so it's not representative of what might happen. They need to test with something metal hitting it to test its actual strength.

Ray,

You're right, I may have exaggerated the impact capability of modern fighter canopies. While they do sometimes operate well above supersonic speeds at lower altitudes where a bird strike may occur, the canopy would be severely damaged by such an event. As you noted, most canopies are probably qualified for bird strikes at something like 400kts. But these numbers are not normally made public.

Of course, as was the case with Cristiano DeMatta, there are worse things than a bird that a race car or aircraft can strike.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... r_bash.jpg

Regards,
riff_raff

Yeah, there isn't much you can do to protect a driver when they hit a deer!

The problem i see is in the rain, I can't imagine there being a wiper system that would be able to cover the small radius that the canopy would have, the driver would be stuck with an extremely small viewing window and would probably be unable to see out the side of his car.

Ray wrote:1. It cannot, under any circumstance, have any kind of explosive based release. Safety and local laws will make it almost impossible to implement, not to mention specialized training in handling the explosives for the team members...

I'm not so sure about this, but doesn't the SLS have these kind of explosives to open its gull-wing doors in case of an accident?

Ray wrote:
That test in the video is heavily biased towards rubber side impact. That's pretty much a best case scenario and not at all representative of a real world impact, and in my opinion completely worthless. There's nothing in that test that could start a stress fracture, like a wheel scratching the transparency when it hits, so it's not representative of what might happen. They need to test with something metal hitting it to test its actual strength.

But, I am sure you would agree that the tyre hitting the canopy is much safer than a tyre hitting a driver's head. (Surtees who died). So it is still an improvement, whether or not the actual metal of the rim hit the canopy.


Wait... I just re-watched the video.. the metal slug that they used to launch the tyre did actually hit the canopy!

Ray wrote:Yeah, there isn't much you can do to protect a driver when they hit a deer!

I dunno, I clipped one once a few years ago, next time I came around the french spectators had got a fire going and were making a spit

Certainly stopped it hitting another.

on episode 30 of The Flying Lap Peter Windsor mentions a Sergio Rinland car with an enclosed canopy and all electric powered doing good lap times (he mentions tenths off the Red Bull in spain) anyone know anything more about this car?

there is a few mentions of hybrid vehicles on the Astauto site.. no pics or real information I could see.

n smikle wrote:You can bore two breather holes in it then. That should open it enough.

Smart. Means i can roll down my car's windows and sell it as a covertible.

zorog wrote:on episode 30 of The Flying Lap Peter Windsor mentions a Sergio Rinland car with an enclosed canopy and all electric powered doing good lap times (he mentions tenths off the Red Bull in spain) anyone know anything more about this car?

there is a few mentions of hybrid vehicles on the Astauto site.. no pics or real information I could see.

Who is Sergio Rinland and what car?

alelanza wrote:

n smikle wrote:You can bore two breather holes in it then. That should open it enough.

Smart. Means i can roll down my car's windows and sell it as a covertible.

No, but You can cut your roof off, and weld this on to it:

n smikle wrote:
Who is Sergio Rinland and what car?

http://goo.gl/4MZvr

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJwRJkCx ... re=related[/youtube]

well this is hungary gp3 friday practice...imagine the drivers head hitting the barriers/tires..

As you say, a few inches to one side and the car would have landed with the drivers head on top of the armco.

Going off topic - why did the car rise over the tyre barrier instead of into the tyre barrier? I see the nose cone is intact, should that have broken up to disipate energy on the initial impact?

This is a link to the video:
http://vimeo.com/26098946

Is it a viable solution? I think if a closed cockpit is implemented the driver will need some cooling mechanism...