Résultats de recherche
In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocket motor , carrying the pilot with it.
13 juin 2018 · Ejection seats have saved lives right up to the very edge of space. On April 16, 1975, Captain Jon T. Little was knocked out while ejecting from a Lockheed U-2R spyplane over the Pacific at 65,000 feet and 470 mph. Unconscious, he fell 50,000 feet before his parachute automatically deployed. “I pulled the eject handle,” he ...
- Don Hollway
26 août 2021 · The invention of the ejection seat is one of the biggest milestones for aviation safety in the history of flight. Before ejection seats, exiting an aircraft in an emergency was a hazardous ordeal, requiring crew members to literally leap free of their doomed machine.
- 1914-1918: Balloon Jumping
- Backpack Bailing
- 1940–1945: Breakaway Planes
- 1941–1945: The Rollout
- Swift Exit
- Automatic Deployment
- Slide of Doom
- The Low Rider
- Late 1960s: A Better Handle
- Electric Feel
Cockpits had no room for storage, so the first military escape aids went to the balloon corps—where any attack could turn explosive. (Thanks, hydrogen gas!) Crews hooked harnesses to chutes attached outside the basket and tumbled out.
Just 13 years after we first got into airplanes, pilot Solomon Van Meter patented a backpack-style contraption to help us hop out of them. An airman would jump from his plane and pull a ripcord, flipping open a tortoiselike aluminum shell full of silk chute.
Early stabs at ejection seats came in planes such as the German He 280 and the Do 335. The chairs used compressed air to fling people out of cockpits. In the case of the Do 335, when the flyer needed to bail, a second blast would jettison the tail and back propeller so the pilot wouldn’t hit them on the way out.
Allied planes finally had exit strategies. Some aviators sat on packed parachutes that unfurled with a tug after they’d roll into the open air. Others donned harnesses that could quickly connect to chutes stashed around the cabin.
Throwing crews clear of crashing crafts got tricky as jets sped up, so ejection experts Martin-Baker’s Mark 1 catapulted people at 60 feet per second. To start the action, escapees pulled down face shields over their heads. Small chutes called drogues stabilized seats until crew released personal canopies.
Getting thrown free can knock you unconscious, so the second-gen Martin-Baker seat worked on its own. The unfolding drogue pulled pilots from the seat and deployed a personal chute. Sensors kept the main canopy closed above 10,000 feet, saving the slowdown for lower, easier-to-breathe air.
Ejection seats didn’t become immediately universal. The Douglas A3 nuclear bomber, for instance, had crew slide down a passageway behind the pilot, and pull their backpack chutes once outside. The approach earned the A3D, which carried three people, a nickname: the “all-three dead.”
Sometimes crew need to high-tail it when hovering just over the ground—or even sitting on the runway—leaving little time between exit and impact. Martin-Baker added a rocket pack for an extra boost. In one test, a pilot started from nada and shot up 200 feet for a slow, safe descent.
Once aviators donned helmets, there was no need to lower protective face screens before skedaddling. Martin-Baker found it speedier to trigger escape mechanisms with a handle between pilots’ legs. Hardware is in the same spot today—though in bombers, it’s on either side of the seat, out of the way of the flight controls. Related: 10 huge machine...
McDonnell Douglas’ ACES II became the Air Force standard, replacing a hodgepodge of seats by different makers. It featured quick-firing, rocket-powered chutes, and was more reliable—the first to time ejection sequences electronically instead of using mechanical or pyrotechnic delays.
22 août 2021 · The plane ejector seat has saved more than 7,600 lives to date. It was invented in 1944 by an engineer from Northern Ireland.
Discover the fascinating story of the ejection seat, an essential piece of technology that has saved countless lives in aviation history.
- 21 min
- 4,2K
- Frankie HM Channel & Plane Spotting
28 oct. 2016 · The live operational ejection of Martin-Baker seat took place in May 1949 when test pilot Jo Lancaster punched out of an experimental Armstrong Whitworth AW52 flying wing and laminar flow...
