The Moments of Ejection from Crashing Planes

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 06/22/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

   

[Bean Counter]

More proof that a Pilot’s last best friend is an operable “Jettison Aircraft” handle....

[Lmo56]

Here is the video of the F-16 Thunderbird crash. It is video #39 at:

http://www.glennpew.com/

[Sequoyah101]

Pretty much pegs out the fun meter.

[DesertRhino]

No,,, it was an airshow disaster in Ukraine in the last few years. Ramstein was an trainer jet from a demonstration team that had a mid air collision. I think Italians.

But that Sukhoi was from an airshow in Ukraine. Many on the ground were killed.

[Domandred]

Yes, crash at Mountain Home AFB in 2003 during the Gunfighter Skies air show.

There was confusion between above ground level and mean sea level effectively leading to driving the plane into the ground.

[doorgunner69]

Good stuff. Some of them are obviously test ejections, but hell, an ejection has to be memorable in any event, planned or otherwise.

Really like the one from the from of some sort of small bomber..........

[YHAOS]

That’s a WOW! ping!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Meet your maker in a Martin-Baker.

[gman992]

Sometimes ejections happen when not even planned!

http://www.gallagher.com/ejection_seat/

[Robert A Cook PE]

I read an older advertisement for ejection seats that says over 25% of all of “our ejection seats ever built were used successfully” ... Kind of indicates just how high -powered military jets eventually crash.

By the way, the B-52 ejection seats for the flight crew (not pilot/copilot) ejected straight down. Works if you’re not flying low .....

[Mr. Blond]

What kind of plane is that in #3?

[doorgunner69]

Didn't the early F-104 seat eject downward as well? Something about "spurs" is rattling around my memory banks.........

Point of interest: Worked for a while with one of the only guys to eject from a SR-71, name of Ken Curtis. H was a muckie-muck at California Microwave, on the staff for insider contracts, no doubt. Never talked to him, being a lowly engineer.....

[BIGLOOK]

Flew in the Whale, an EA-3B and the air crew didn't have any ejection seats just a deck hatch with exposive bolts and a push bar. Exiting the a/c in an emergency bailout was hardly ever successful; actually next to none. The one that lived but broke his back on the belly of the plane and survived to be picked up from the sea.

I suppose a downward ejection system would get you far enough away from the fuselage but going out from the belly of the beast certainly isn't desirable.

[raygun]

aviation pinglist (pilot quits - major malfunction)

[hattend]

We had gotten the autograph of that F-16 pilot the day before. We were on an elevator at the Silver Legacy Reno. The T-Birds stay there for the Reno Air races.

Heard about his ejection the next day on the drive home.

[hattend]

For my incentive ride in a T-38 (way back when) the saying to me was, “I’ll say ‘eject’ three times, if you’re still there on the third ‘eject’, you’ll be there by yourself.”

[hattend]

Looks like the front of a Boeing B-47.

They must have been trying to similate high speed ejections or something because the NAV/Bomber never sit in there like that. (face down, head forward)

Test shot

[tanknetter]

Flew in the Whale, an EA-3B and the air crew didn't have any ejection seats just a deck hatch with exposive bolts and a push bar. Exiting the a/c in an emergency bailout was hardly ever successful; actually next to none.

The Skywarrior was originally designated A3D, when the Navy was designating aircraft by manufacturer (before the move to a common DoD aircraft designation system).

So it meant the Skywarrior was (A)ttack design number (3) from (D)ouglas Aircraft.

Nickname from the Navy crews was "(A)ll 3 (D)ead"

[tanknetter]

They must have been trying to similate high speed ejections or something because the NAV/Bomber never sit in there like that. (face down, head forward)

The early B-47s - which the one in the picture is - had a glass (won't call it a "greenhouse") nose for the navigator. They might have been testing different ejection configurations, given the inherent problems with a downward ejection.

On this page, about 1/2 way down, there's a picture of a downward test eject from that same position.

[tanknetter]

OTOH, that B-47 pic could be photoshopped. A second look at it and its ... weird. There’s no way that forward nose cone could survive that open position in forward flight (it would rip off and possible bounce back into the canopy or off the tail), and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of hinging mechanism. PLUS the downward ejection panel looks missing.

The seat looks strange - no evidence of rockets or rails. Can’t imagine the thing was spring-fired (!)