HANS device with attached helmet
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: HANS device with attached helmet. The HANS device is a black fiberglass composite with a green auto racing helmet attached with a wire. This was used by Jim Downing while racing his Mazda-Kudzu prototypes built at Downing/Atlanta in the 1990s. The Head and Neck Supportive Device, or HANS Device was invented in the early 1980s by Dr. Robert Hubbard (1943-2019), a biomechanical engineering professor at Michigan State University. Hubbard began designing his device after his brother, Jim Downing, an American road racer, lost a fellow racer to a skull fracture in a racing accident. The basilar skull fracture is a common injury in auto racing an often results in serious injury or death due to the force of movement and momentum placed on the head and neck while the body remains in place through the use of seatbelts. Hubbard’s device provides support for the head and neck in these types of high-speed collisions. Hubbard produced his first prototype in 1985 but it wasn’t until 1989 that his device was manufactured and only after he and Jim Downing formed Hubbard Downing Inc. and developed it themselves. The auto racing community resisted the device complaining that it was too restrictive and uncomfortable but after many deaths due to skull fractures, especially high-profile racers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr., NASCAR mandated the use of the HANS device in 2001while Formula One racing followed suit in 2003.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport
content: auto racing
label: level of sport
content: Professional
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0086.03
label: accession number
content: 2021.0086
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0086.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: HANS device, auto racing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fiberglass composite (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 1/2 in x 13 in x 14 in; 46.99 cm x 33.02 cm x 35.56 cm