Why Were Air Bags Developed?
The idea of using a rapidly inflating cushion to prevent crash injuries had a long history before the United Stated Department of Transportation called for the equipment to be adapted for automobiles in the 1980s. The first patent on an inflatable crash landing device for airplanes was filed during World War II. Early efforts to adapt the air bag for use in cars ran up against prohibitive prices and technical hurdles involving the storage and release of compressed gas. Researchers had to decide if there was enough room in a car for a gas canister, whether the gas would remain contained at high pressure for the life of the car, and how could the bag be made to expand quickly and reliably at a variety of operating temperatures and without emitting an ear splitting bang. They needed a way to set off a chemical reaction that would produce the nitrogen that would inflate the bag. In the 1970s they began to use solid propellant inflators. In the early days of auto air bags, experts cautioned
