Patent 8118255 was granted and assigned to Lockheed Martin on February, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present disclosure includes various apparatus, system, and method embodiments for vehicle energy absorption. One embodiment includes an inflatable structure for impact of a vehicle thereon and one or more cords coupled to one or more deflation vents on the inflatable structure, where at least one of the one or more cords is an activation mechanism to activate the deflation vent upon impact of the vehicle.