Gibson & Barnes has launched a new body cooling system that it says will keep the wearer cool even when ambient temperatures reach as high as 125 F (51 C).
The Kryo system consists of a cooling vest, a small cooling unit, and an umbilical cable connecting the two. The portable unit weighs about 15 pounds and draws 11.6 Amps at 28 VDC aircraft power. It’s able to cool two people at the same time, and each person is able to independently adjust the amount of cooling they require. Including two vests, two umbilical cables and the unit, the system’s total weight is about 19 pounds.
“It’s perfect for helicopter pilots,” said Tyler Wegge, president of Gibson & Barnes. “It keeps them cool, reduces dehydration, reduces fatigue – and just makes life a lot more comfortable.”
The difference between this system and previous generations of cooling flight vests, said Wegge, was that it used water rather than ice.
“A lot of cooling vests in the past were based on ice, which is delivering 40-degree [4.5 C] water, which is really too cold,” he said. “The big problem with ice systems is they don’t last very long, plus the logistics of dealing with large blocks of ice. If a person’s actually wearing ice packs, which I find very common [in warmer climates], you can actually be burned by it — but again, it’s just the longevity of it. . . . People are only getting a half hour or so out of that.”
The Kryo uses about 22 ounces of distilled water, which is continuously cooled in the unit and then pumped through the roughly 100 feet of narrow tubing in each vest. “Customers talk about losing two pounds just from sweating in a typical day,” said Wegge. “[With the Kryo], we’ve seen pilots have no sweat on their head at well over 100 degrees [38 C] ambient, and [be] completely dry on their bodies.”
Wegge said the umbilical cable connector, which can be quickly disconnected in case of an emergency, is built to current military specification, building on 11 years of work the company has done with the U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Systems in developing microclimate cooling systems for the Army’s Air Warrior Program.
According to Wegge, the system has had a good reception from the aviation community so far. “Cooling is a big issue in the south especially, where people are dealing with high temperatures and high humidity,” he said. “This system will really improve their flight time, flight awareness and make life more comfortable and safe.”
