Post by a425couplefrom
https://www.motorsport.com/general/news/hans-inventor-robert-hubbard-dies/4333572/?fbclid=IwAR39_IeRmiu6kt9khbWMUlL_FhR2tUnZwsDISGZuLgIDn6bWuMR_4qCQ48c
A great man who has saved many lives.
Died at age ~85 of illness.
(Sorry my access just went down.)
HANS inventor Robert Hubbard dies
Adam Cooper
By: Adam Cooper
Feb 6, 2019, 12:51 PM
Dr Robert Hubbard, the engineer behind the HANS device that has saved
many lives in motorsport, passed away on Tuesday aged 75.
Hubbard, who was a professor of materials science and mechanics at
Michigan State University until his retirement in 2006, conceived the
HANS device in collaboration with his brother-in-law and IMSA racer Jim
Downing.
Although it took some time for their pioneering work to be accepted in
racing, the HANS has subsequently become compulsory equipment in many
categories.
Hubbard was closely involved in road safety long before he developed the
HANS.
He completed a PhD on the mechanical properties of skull bone while
working at the University of Michigan Highway Safety Research Institute,
and in the 1970s he worked for General Motors, researching injuries and
developing crash test dummies.
The HANS was born when Downing and Hubbard realised that drivers were
being killed in racing accidents because their heads were not being
restrained, which led to basilar skull fractures.
The loss of Downing's friend Patrick Jacquemart – who crashed his
Renault 5 Turbo in testing at Mid-Ohio in 1981 – was the driving force
behind their quest for a solution.
Their research was conducted on limited funds, with just a small
business grant from the state of Michigan. After some early experiments
Hubbard filed a patent in 1985, and then Downing raced with a prototype
Model 1 HANS for the first time at the IMSA season finale at Daytona in
November 1986.
Hubbard and Downing faced resistance, but they persisted, and gradually
honed their invention into something more practical than the bulky original.
Pioneering sled testing conducted with fellow academic engineers at
Wayne State university in Detroit helped Hubbard compile research papers
that formally demonstrated the value of the HANS.
The first production example was sold in 1991, and as word of its
potential spread, General Motors and later Ford contributed to ongoing
research.
The deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at the 1994 San
Marino GP led to a renewed focus on safety in F1, and interest in the
HANS from Professor Sid Watkins and the FIA.
Gerhard Berger tested a version at Ferrari as early as 1995.
Bolstered by extensive testing by Mercedes engineer Hubert Gramling, who
abandoned airbag research that he'd been conducting in conjunction with
the FIA, the HANS was officially adopted in F1 in 2003.
The HANS had already become compulsory in ChampCar, although at the time
there was still some resistance in other forms of US motorsport.
The death of Dale Earnhardt Sr in the 2001 Daytona 500 would change
that. The HANS already had a presence in NASCAR following a spate of
recent accidents – several drivers were already using one at Daytona –
but the loss of the sport's biggest star proved decisive.
Downing would later recall that HANS sales went from 250 since its
inception to 250 in one week – and 3000 were sold by the end of that year.
comments include
Smart guy and showing persistance and self belief pays off, his family
must be proud of the legacy he left behind, someone genuinely causing a
change in the often blinkered world of F1 that helped saved lives. RIP Sir.
R.I.P Robert. I wish the thousands using your device around the globe
today can take a moment and say a prayer for your long journey.
The HANS device is one of the most significant inventions adpoted in
auto racing history. Dr. Hubbard cannot get enough credit for saving
lives not just at the top level of motorsports but also across all kinds
of grassroots racing. We can actually call it the Hubbard device to
memorizialize this critical contribution to safety.
Racing is so much safer today due to HANS device, SAFER barrier, better
energy-absorbing chassis, and cockpit/seat head restraint.
R.I.P. and what a legacy!
Just imagine how many lives he saved by developing this device. RIP Dr.
Hubbard, well done sir.
We thank you Robert for the many lives you have saved on the race track.
R.I.P. You made the world a better place with your hard work. Big salute
to you sir.
I know it took years to perfect but at its heart, what a wonderfully
simple idea, true 'outside the box' thinking.
The wonderful simplicity of the device is what first struck me when I
saw Downing wearing a prototype at the San Antonio IMSA race. It was
clumsy and ugly but there was no doubt in my mind they were on to something.