NGFWH (Next Gen Fixed Wing Helmet)

• The United States Airforce launched a worldwide open competition through its accelerator program, AFWERX, to re-imagine a fixed-wing helmet that had last been updating in the 1980's.

• The open call resulted in over 100 concepts, suggestions, and technologies. From that 38 companies were invited to a showcase in November of 2018.

• From these, a total of 10 vendors were configured into 3 teams and funding of $500K+. Each was tasked to develop prototypes. The prototype helmets were developed with an eye toward decreased weight, improved thermal management and stability, customizable fit, and integration with night-vision and other systems.

• Following the AFWERX challenge, 2 teams (Gentex & Lift) were invited to further develop their solutions under an OTA contract as the lead-up to a $20M+ production contract.