An airbag, also called a supplemental inflatable restraint, is a vehicle occupant restraint system built around a fabric bag designed to inflate within milliseconds during a collision and then deflate afterward. It consists of the airbag cushion itself, an inflation module and an impact sensor, and its purpose is to give a vehicle occupant soft cushioning and restraint during a crash, reducing injury from contact between the occupant and the vehicle's interior. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Patent or First-Use Date SignificanceThe airbag was the first mass-adopted automotive safety device to use a rapidly inflating cushion to protect occupants during a collision, and broad commercial adoption across the automobile industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s made it a standard safety feature worldwide. 1 Sources
1. Airbag (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, Origins subsection, Hetrick patent grant sentence
The airbag specifically for automobile use is credited independently to the American John W. Hetrick, who filed for an airbag patent on 5 August 1952, that was granted #2,649,311 by the United States Patent Office on 18 August 1953.
History section, As a substitute for seat belts subsection, broad commercial adoption sentence
Broad commercial adoption of airbags occurred in many markets during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Who patented the airbag for cars and when did airbags become common?
Hetrick filed in 1952 and was granted a US patent in 1953; broad adoption came in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The airbag specifically for automobile use is credited independently to the American John W. Hetrick, who filed for an airbag patent on 5 August 1952. It was granted United States patent number 2,649,311 on 18 August 1953. The patent came decades before airbags were widely fitted: broad commercial adoption occurred in many markets during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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