On July 24, 1990, Thomas Manix received U.S. Patent No. 4,943,252 on an Avalanche Flotation Ball:

It not clear what kind of Freedom to Practice studies that Q Branch conducts, but just nine years later they provisioned Jame Bond 9 years later in The World is Not Enough, James an (Pierce Brosnan) and Elektra (Sophie Marceau) used a very similar device provided by Q to survive an avalanche: