By Henry VIII

Out of the catacombs of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art has come another type of body armor for U.S. airmen (TIME, June 14). At the Army's Aberdeen (Md.) proving grounds, ballistics experts are testing a steel suit modeled after the coat of armor worn by King Henry VIII.

For months the Army and Curator Stephen Grancsay of the Museum's ancient arms and armor department have been experimenting on armor that will give maximum protection from flak and flying missiles, minimum interference with movement. Last week genial, 46-year-old Curator Grancsay thought he had found the answer. He hoped to prove to the Army that the type of steel coat worn by medieval knights is still the best.

Grancsay had his armorers hammer out their steel in a crowded Museum basement. The end product is a suit of plates attached to each other by shock cords and springs and equipped with an instantaneous release (for quick shedding when parachutes are the thing to wear).

The final medieval touch: a helmet hinged on each side of the head just above the ears and locking over the center of the chin. It stems directly from a 15th-Century Italian helmet called armet-a-rondelle. But it fits handily over an oxygen mask.

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