Ejector seat
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US Air Force F-15 Eagle ejection seat test using a mannequin. |
In (mostly military)
aircraft, the
ejection seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by a
rocket motor, carrying the pilot with it. The concept of an ejectable escape capsule has also been tried. Once clear of the aircraft, the ejection seat deploys a
parachute, and descends safely to earth.
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A warning applied on the cockpit side of all the aircraft using an ejection seat system. Is intended especially for the maintenance crew. |
While a
bungee-assisted escape from an aircraft took place in 1910, the ejection seat as we recognise it today was invented in
Germany in 1938 and perfected during
World War II. Prior to this, the only means of escape from an incapacitated aircraft was to jump clear, and in many cases this was difficult due to injury, the difficulty of egress from a confined space, the airflow past the aircraft and other factors.
The first ejection seats were developed independently during the
second world war by
Heinkel and
SAAB. Early models were powered by
compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted with such a system was the
Heinkel He 280 prototype
jet fighter in 1941. One of the He 280 test pilots, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on
January 13,
1942 after his control surfaces iced up and became inoperable. However the He 280 never reached production status. Thus, the first operational type to provide ejection seats for the crew was the Heinkel
He 219 Uhu night fighter in 1942.
In Sweden a version using compressed air was tested in 1941. A gunpowder ejection seat was developed by
Bofors tested in 1943 for the
Saab 21. The first test in the air was on a
Saab 17 on
27 February 1944. [
1]
In late 1944, the
Heinkel He 162 featured a new type of ejection seat, this time fired by an explosive cartridge. In this system the seat rode on wheels set between two pipes running up the back of the
cockpit. When lowered into position, caps at the top of the seat fitted over the pipes to close them. Cartridges, basically identical to
shotgun shells, were placed in the bottom of the pipes, facing upward. When fired the gases would fill the pipes, "popping" the caps off the end and thereby forcing the seat to ride up the pipes on its wheels, and out of the aircraft. By the end of the war, the
Do-335 Pfeil,
Me-262 Schwalbe and
Me-163 Komet also were fitted with ejection seats.
After World War II, the need for such systems became pressing, as aircraft speeds were getting ever higher, and it was not long before the
sound barrier was broken. Manual escape at such speeds would be impossible. The
United States Army Air Forces experimented with downward-ejecting systems operated by a
spring, but it was the work of the
British company
Martin-Baker that was to prove crucial.
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Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejects from his F-16 aircraft with an ACES II ejection seat, on September 14, 2003. Stricklin was not injured. |
The first live flight test of the M-B system took place on
July 24,
1946, when Bernard Lynch ejected from a
Gloster Meteor Mk III. Shortly afterwards, on
August 17,
1946, 1st Sgt. Larry Lambert was the first live US ejectee. M-B ejector seats were fitted to prototype and production aircraft from the late 1940s, and the first emergency use of a Martin-Baker seat occurred in 1949 during testing of the
Armstrong-Whitworth AW.52 Flying Wing.
Early seats used a solid propellant charge to
defenestrate the pilot and seat, by igniting the charge inside a telescoping tube attached to the seat. Effectively the seat was fired from the aircraft like a bullet from a gun. As jet speeds increased still further, this method proved inadequate to get the pilot sufficiently clear of the airframe, so experiments with rocket propulsion began. The
F-102 Delta Dagger was the first aircraft to be fitted with a rocket propelled seat, in 1958. MB developed a similar design, using multiple rocket units feeding a single nozzle. This had the advantage of being able to eject the pilot to a safe height even if the aircraft was on or very near the ground.
In the early 1960s, deployment began of rocket-powered ejection seats designed for use at supersonic speeds, in such planes as the
F-106 Delta Dart. Six pilots have ejected at speeds exceeding 700
knots (805mph) and the highest altitude a M-B seat was deployed at was 57,000ft (from a
Canberra in 1958). It has been rumoured but not confirmed that an
SR-71 pilot ejected at
Mach 3 at an altitude of 80,000ft. Despite these records, most ejections occur at fairly low speeds and at fairly low altitudes.
The purpose of an ejection seat is pilot survival, not pilot comfort. Many pilots have suffered career-ending injuries while using ejection seats, including crushed vertebrae. The pilot typically experiences an acceleration of about 12 to 14
g (120 to 140 m/s²). Western seats usually impose lighter loads on the pilots; 1960s-70s era ex-Soviet technology often goes up to 20-22 g (with SM-1 and KM-1 gunbarrel type ejection seats). Career-ending injuries are quite common, partly because eastern military pilots usually continue to fly into their late 40s or esarly 50s, while most western jet pilots retire from the military in their late 30s.
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Lt. William Belden ejects from an A-4 Skyhawk on the deck of the Shangri-La. |
By May 2006, Martin-Baker ejection seats had saved 7152 lives. The total figure for all types of ejector seats is unknown, but must be considerably higher.
Early models of the
F-104 Starfighter were equipped with a downward firing ejection seat due to the hazard of the
T-tail. In order to make this work, the pilot was equipped with "spurs" which were attached to cables that would pull the legs inwards so the pilot could be ejected. Note that such a system is of no use on or near the ground. Aircraft designed for low-level use sometimes have ejection seats which fire through the canopy, as waiting for the canopy to be ejected is too slow. Many aircraft types (e.g.
BAe Hawk and the Harrier line of aircraft) have an explosive cord (MDC - Miniature Detonation Cord) embedded within the perspex of the canopy, which shatters it simultaneously with the firing of the seat. Soviet
Yak-38 VTOL naval fighter planes were equipped with automatically activated ejection seats, mandated by the notorious unreliability of their vertical lifting powerplants.
Some aircraft designs, such as the
General Dynamics F-111, do not have individual ejection seats, but instead, the entire section of the airframe containing the crew can be ejected as a single capsule. In this system, very powerful rockets are used, and multiple large parachutes are used to bring the capsule down, in a manner very similar to the
Launch Escape System of the Apollo spacecraft. On landing, an
airbag system is used to cushion the landing, and this also acts as a flotation device if the capsule lands in water.
The
Kamov Ka-50 was the first
helicopter to be fitted with an ejection seat. The system is very similar to that of a conventional fixed-wing aircraft; the main
rotor is equipped with
explosive bolts and is designed to disintegrate moments before the seat rocket is fired.
Early flights of the US
space shuttle were with a crew of two, both provided with ejector seats, but the seats were disabled and then removed as the crew size was increased.
The Soviet's shuttle "
Buran" was planned to be fitted with K-36RB (K-36M-11F35) seats, but only one ever flew and that too unmanned; hence the seats were never installed.
The only spacecraft ever flown with installed ejection seats are the Soviet
Vostok and American
Gemini series. During the Vostok program, all the returning cosmonauts would eject as their capsule descended under parachutes at about 7,000 m (23,000 ft). This fact was kept secret for many years as the
FAI rules at the time required that a pilot must land with the spacecraft for the purposes of FAI record books.
Passenger planes are unlikely to receive ejection technology as the weight, complexity and cost are seen to outweigh the benefits. However, some
ultralight and single-engine
general aviation aircraft have been refitted with
ballistically deployed parachutes recently. These canisterized packages support and lower the entire airframe to earth and thus could be considered a form of capsule-based ejection system.
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Escape crew capsule*
www.ejectionsite.com*
www.gdt-systems.com*
ejectionseat.com.ne.kr*
Ejection seat simulator
