Flying cars: use of Mizuno’s sports shoe technology in passenger seat design
*This is a machine-translated text of the original article.
Joyson Safety Systems Japan (JSSJ) and Mizuno Corporation, volunteer group Cartivator, SkyDrive Inc have announced that they have jointly developed seats for passengers of “flying cars” and have started performance verification tests.
CARTIVATOR and SkyDrive are developing flying vehicles with the aim of commercializing them and launching them in 2023.
While the company has been developing airframes, passenger seats equipped with cushioning functions to protect passengers during emergency landing are important among the components, and it has been difficult to obtain existing products with aircraft-level performance. Even if they were available, they were difficult to handle due to differences in the assumption of the conditions of use.
Under such circumstances, four companies decided to develop a lightweight, high-performance “seat with a built-in shock absorber” applying sports goods manufacturer Mizuno’s proprietary corrugated plate “Mizuno Wave” technology, which is used as a basic function of the sole part to achieve both cushioning and stability of shoes and JSSJ know-how in the automotive safety field.
As a feature of the jointly developed passenger seat, it is possible to combine the opposing functions of cushioning and stability due to the characteristics of the wave plate, and it is possible to omit some components necessary for the seat with the general shock buffer device. This means that weight reduction can be realized.
SkyDrive’s representative director, Mr Fukuzawa, says, “The most important thing in an airborne vehicle is to ensure adequate safety. It is important to build a safe airframe, but it is important to have the skills to safely protect passengers in the event of an accident.”
He also added, “We are very pleased to have our passenger seats developed with JSSJ and Mizuno, who have been a global leader in safety and cushioning devices for many years. We will continue to accelerate our developments for practical use in 2023.”
Original Text: https://ampmedia.jp/2020/04/07/skydrive-2/