Posted on 03/25/2009 5:29:32 PM PDT by pfflier
In the movie Top Gun, the F-14 is (presumably) in a flat spin and Goose ejects into the canopy. I need some professional opinions on the possibility of that happening.
My experience with the F-16 is that the canopy ballistics make the canopy long gone prior to seat firing at any point in the envelope. Normally the aerodynamics would strip the canopy away in forward flight in any ejection. But, in a flat spin, did the F-14 aerodynamics create an environment where the canopy could remain over the plane/crew resulting in a crew strike?
I don’t know but in the movies they can do anything they want its make believe But i will ask a military pilot friend on another board for you
I have no idea of how any of that works but just about anything however unlikely, is possible.
I checked the Top Gun movie Manual and thats an affirmative.... wait Until the Angels and Demons and see the Lies they can create in that Movie!!
Here is some video of a good ejection it looks like that seat blows the canopy way out of the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV2WREn0CCE
Lucky guys didn’t even get wet!
Most military jets give me an ejection.
It's just a movie.
I was an AME (ejection seats and canopy maintenance mechanic) while I was in the Navy. Though I left the Navy before the F14 was introduced ... all the aircraft seats I worked on ... F9, A4 A7, F4 all had seats that were designed to go through the canopy should it be necessary. When I first saw Goose get killed in that accident my reaction was .. Bull Pucky
My apologies for the ancient timing of this question.
Yeah, why didn’t you post this here when the movie came out?
A lot of ejection seats have a canopy breaker on the top.
I don’t recall the sequence in the film, but I’d doubt the planets lined up to make that possible.
The F-14 seat was zero-zero, meaning sitting still it would be OK. That leads me to believe the the CADS/PADS (explosives) would have been sufficient to get that canopy outta the way.
How did Kelly McGillis go from Amish farmer widow with no technological experience to civilian flight instructor in just one year?
It looks fast just sitting on the ground.
We also did LOX (liquid oxygen) aircraft air conditioning heating and basically anything pertaining to the pilots environment. Also a lot of AME's (including myself) were S&R aircrew members since we knew how to disarm the charges in the ejection seats and canopies of a downed aircraft. Lot's of fun in Nam ...
The ejection handles in the F-14 are are above the head and when the ejection is initiated by either the pilot or radar intercept operator, (RIO), the RIO goes first with the pilot following. The canopy is is jettisoned first and then the crew is ejected. Hitting the canopy was a "plot twist" just like the inverted flight within two meters from the MIG!!!
Herer is a link with photos and F-14 stats and stuff!
enjoy
BTW When I was stationed at Perrin AQFB in the 60s we had a Wing commander, (Full colonel), who was a cowboy. He had been written up for wearing cowboy boots while flying his F-102. The reason this was frowned upon was that should he eject he would loose his boots because the wind shear would tear those boots off his feet! I once asked him about his penchant, (we were golf buddies even thought I was just a LT), and he said that should he eject he would steer his canopy so that he wouldn't land on a cactus!
Never trust what you see in a gay movie
The ejection seat picture on the right shows the two horns on the top of the seat ... Martin Baker BTW. Those are called “Canopy Breakers” as is their purpose
And I thought this wasn’t a “hard” question.
Because in 1986 I wasn’t anywhere near the internet.
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