US Patent 7225471 Removable optical assembly for a helmet

There is provided a removable optical assembly for a helmet. The removable optical assembly includes an optical device retention system and an optical device attachment assembly. The optical device retention system is adapted to couple to the helmet and has an optical device receiving portion. The optical device attachment assembly has a latching mechanism. The latching mechanism is adapted to releasably latch the optical device attachment assembly to the optical device receiving portion. The optical device retention system further has a deflection flange adjacent the optical device receiving portion for deflecting extraneous elements over the optical device receiving portion and the latching mechanism.