ANH - the helmet's blast shield?

I was just watching ANH, and again wondered -
during the scene on the Falcon, when Luke is practicing lightsaber moves with the remote, and Obi-Wan puts the helmet on his head with the blast shield down.

What in god's name is the purpose of the blast shield? There probably isn't any sort of heads-up display inside... is it for accidents, to prevent your eyes from being hit with shrapnel or something? I can't really think of why a pilot's helmet would have a solid shield covering the pilot's eyes.

 

Maybe it's some sort of Jedi training relic that was specifically meant for the padawan-esque exercises Luke was doing on the Falcon. Perhaps Obi-Wan kept it from his early pre-beard days?

edits: Uh, after reading one of the following posts, it occurred to me that the mystery helmet was probably property of the Falcon. So then... what was Han using it for? Blind blaster target practice?

...

 

I always though it was eye sight protection from very bright blasts (like a nuclear explosion for example)

 

Well, the Falcon needs to be repaired all the time, correct? Maybe it's a full-faced mask for welding (mostly for Chewie-- Wookiee hair stinks royally when burned)

 

Well, if I was welding, I'd like to be able to see what I was doing.

 

Maybe it's something that Chewie put together for a paying fair? Chewie may have been thinking, "Hey, these are good paying passengers, and I don't have to load/unload cargo. Maybe they'll need to get back to Tatooine. I'll take good care of them."

Repeat business is good business.

 

I just watched ANH and I too wondered why Han would have such an item on his ship. I think it might be that he just keeps odd helmets and weapons and things like that on board all the time. It looks like you can just pull down the blast shield when you need it, otherwise the thing just functions like a regular helmet.

Ahh, I don't know, just speculation I guess-heh.

 

Edit: Oops, double post

 

I don't know that there's any evidence that it actually belongs to Han. Couldn't OB1 have brought it with him from the temple way back when and stored it at his domicile until he needed it to train Luke?

 

I'm a bit confused by all these posts.

Surely the purpose that Obi-Wan was using it for was to completely blind Luke from the thing he was fighting.

Welding and other such devices for use as said above would still require some level of visibility, although would be partially shielded for brightness.

So it is still a mystery.......maybe Han and Chewie use it for special games of Hide-and-Seek.

 

I think the purpose of it is to protect from rather large explosions when in battle. Say you shoot down a large ship that is about to detonate. Sliding down the blast shield protects the wearer until the blast's glare has gone. It would not be used for welding. That would require the person to see what they are fixing.

 

Maybe Obi-wan welded it on himself. Cause if look at the helmets for the pilots when they are actually flying they don't have a blast shield on them.

 

I think that given that helmets with blast shields appear in AOTC, that they must be quite common pieces of Jedi training equipment, so I reckon it belonged to Obi-Wan. Although you didn't see shots of Luke and Obi-Wan with luggage, I'm sure they had at least a flight bag with the helmet packed inside.

 

I was also going to suggest it came aboard with Obi-Wan. He likely brought it along with the Remote.

Likely a standard blast shield is much more transparent. I'd bet Obi-Wan modified the shild (or replaced it) so that the wearer couldn't see, which makes it perfect for training.

 

Maybe Han gets bored and likes to fly blind just to make things interesting.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

The kiddies in AOTC were hardly wearing blast-shields. Just massive helmets that when tilted obscured their view.

This is a more purpose built helmet with retractable shield.

Strange one this.

 

Maybe the blast shield automatically lowers whenever a bright glare is detected, to protect the eyes. Once the glare passes, the shield raises up again.

 

Hmmm...
Somehow I don't think that a pilot would want his vision obscured for any amount of time. Besides, none of the other pilot's helmets we've seen in the saga had a blast shield (if I remember correctly.)

Boy, I'm suprised there's never been a concrete answer for this!

 

I think we need to get this question forwarded to GL himself. It is the only way.

 

Why would Han have a Helmet like that?
Ok i might have been for protection.
It might have been Obi that brought it..
But how about the Training Ball?
In EU lots of jedi Traines with them..
And Han dont like the Force so why would he have one in his Ship.

Ben brought it aswell as the training ball.
So thats it

 

Well the remote (training ball) could have been Han's because of his occupation. He could be boarded by pirates during any of his smuggling operations. Perhaps it is a security measure against them, maybe some sort of spoken phrase to set it off, programed to ignore Han and Chewie as targets. I have no proof of this, but it seems like a good reason for him to have one.

 

I seem to recall in one of the Han Solo novels by Brian Daley that he uses the training ball for target practice with his blaster.

 

This one is easy. What is a blast shild for? To protect against blasts. And you never know when one will come along... Better safe than sorry.

 

Han's helmet is a little more crude than the ones that the Rebel pilots wear. The glass on the Rebels' helmets automatically darkens whenever a glare is detected, not cutting out visibility.