Multifaceted inventor who created crash test dummies. When he founded Alderson Research Labs in 1952, nobody was thinking about testing the survivability of car crashes. His customers were the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He built the first automobile test dummy at his research lab in 1960. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began buying Alderson's dummies to test seat belts, air bags and other devices designed to minimize deaths and injuries in car crashes. Various other model dummies became popular in television advertising, movies and other research as the technology improved. In 1973, he left his original company and formed a competitor, Humanoid Systems. The two firms dominated the crash test dummy market until they merged in 1990 to become First Technology Safety Systems. During WW II, he helped develop an optical coating to enhance vision in submarine periscopes, devise electronic equipment to aid planes in dropping depth charges on submarines and worked on missile guidance systems. Cause of death, complications from myelofibrosis at age 90.
Multifaceted inventor who created crash test dummies. When he founded Alderson Research Labs in 1952, nobody was thinking about testing the survivability of car crashes. His customers were the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He built the first automobile test dummy at his research lab in 1960. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began buying Alderson's dummies to test seat belts, air bags and other devices designed to minimize deaths and injuries in car crashes. Various other model dummies became popular in television advertising, movies and other research as the technology improved. In 1973, he left his original company and formed a competitor, Humanoid Systems. The two firms dominated the crash test dummy market until they merged in 1990 to become First Technology Safety Systems. During WW II, he helped develop an optical coating to enhance vision in submarine periscopes, devise electronic equipment to aid planes in dropping depth charges on submarines and worked on missile guidance systems. Cause of death, complications from myelofibrosis at age 90.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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