Questions tagged [ejection-seat]
Special seats typically used in fighter aircraft that can propel the crew clear of the aircraft in an emergency.
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What is this knob on a Martin-Baker Mk.4 ejection seat?
I'm trying to find out what manual controls are on the Martin-Baker Mk.4 ejection seat and there's a black and yellow spherical knob by the pilot's right knee that has escaped my researches. I know ...
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Did SR-71s have a switch for seat height adjustment for the pilot or were there strict height requirements in order to fly it?
I've realized that nowadays there are switches present on most modern aircraft which electrically adjust the height of the seating position, and I was wondering if that mechanism was present on the SR-...
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Are there any helicopters with ejection seats?
Are there any helicopters with ejection seats? If so, how is the clearance problem with the rotating blades solved?
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Are there any known incidents of ejections by capsule? What are the survival chances?
One hears of many stories of ejection seats but rarely of ejection by capsule. Probably because seats are so much more common.
So are there any known incidents of ejections by capsule? F-111 was one ...
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Could someone really die in the way that Goose did in the movie "Top Gun"?
Looking at this question I remembered a question I always wanted to ask:
In the movie "Top Gun" one of the main characters dies when trying to eject from the F-14. Here is the scene where this ...
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Why wouldn't a helicopter ejection seat eject sideways? Or forwards?
This question got me thinking. Ejecting from a helicopter is necessarily more complicated than ejecting from a fighter jet or other fixed-wing aircraft. The answer to this question states that ...
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How is the hazard from a malfunctioned ejection seat system handled?
Suppose an incident like this:
An airplane equipped with an ejection seat suffers a problem severe enough that the pilot decides to eject. As he pulls the handle... nothing happens. The ejection ...
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Are modern fighter jets allowed to fly with an inoperative ejection seat?
I'm wondering if a modern fighter jet (Eurofighter, JAS Gripen, F-35 etc.) is allowed to fly when the ejection seats are known not to be in working order.
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Are there any cases where the back-seat pilot is the only one who can cause both ejections seats to fire?
In military training aircraft with a tandem seating configuration, with the instructor pilot in the back seat and the trainee pilot in the front seat, is the ejection system ever set up so that there ...
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Can someone/something other than the pilot trigger the ejection seat?
Let's say there was a two-person jet (take the F-15 for example) that was involved in some sort of accident in the air that incapacitated the pilot (unconscious but still alive) and left the aircraft ...
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Why didn't ejection seats become a thing in civil avation and only limited to military? [duplicate]
Recently, an Indian CDS Bipin Rawat and his family as well as eleven members of the Indian Army died in an helicopter crash. You can find the story here. I did look at any questions asked on the topic ...
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Why are pilots deemed unfit to fly after emergency ejection?
There are many instances where pilots need to eject out of the cockpit due to emergency situations, and after such an ejection from some modern aircraft, pilots are deemed unfit to fly airplanes for ...
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Why are ejection seats not used in commercial passenger airline planes? [duplicate]
This question may sound a bit strange. But if a plane full of people traveling to their destination goes down, why not drop the seats? Or eject them sideways. Or however. At a height where it's ...
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Is it possible to (electronically) disable an ejection seat?
I'm currently reading "2034: A Novel of the Next World War" and my question may have minor spoilers:
One part of the plot comes into motion, when a F35E (the E is probably fictional) is ...
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If a pilot ejects, what is the autopilot programmed to do?
If a pilot uses their ejector seat during flight, what is the autopilot programmed to do?
As a developer myself, I'd want to build in a way for the plane to try and save itself if possible (to save ...
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Why don't tanker aircraft have ejection seats?
Apparently, the KC-135 has no ejection seats (they used to have parachutes to allow the crew to manually bail out, but those were removed in 2008 to save money), and, according to this Quora ...
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How are ejection seats tested?
How does a company like Martin Baker, evaluate the safety of their ejection seats. Are there any standard metrics or tests that exist? If not, what would be the suggested tests to be performed before ...
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How easy is it to pull the ejection handle in a Rafale B?
A civilian passenger ejected from a two-seat Rafale B during takeoff on Mar 20 2019. The investigation is underway as to how it happened, but one of the possibilities discussed is that the passenger ...
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Do any companies offer 'ejection' experiences?
Most airlines now offer fear of flying courses, most airports provide flying lessons and some specialist companies offer zero-gravity flight experiences.
Are there any companies that provide '...
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What are the ejection injury and fatality rates?
Most of us have probably heard about how ejecting from a military aircraft is dangerous in and of itself, and that ejection is not a get out of jail free card.
The most common dangers seem to be:
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How fast is it safe to eject from an F-16? [duplicate]
What is the limit of the ACES II for the F-16, in terms of altitude and airspeed for safe ejection?
The following video tells the story of an F-15 pilot who ejected at supersonic speed and barely ...
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In what emergency situations would a pilot bail out of a helicopter?
The Hiller UH-12 POH actually mentions “Emergency Exit in Flight” as an emergency procedure. What emergencies would make the pilot do this and why don’t other helicopter POH’s mention this?
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Why does the F-111 have a capsule ejection system rather than a conventional system?
Following on from the questions F-111 emergency landing with no wheel; what is done to reduce risks when loosing a wheel? and
Are there any known incidents of ejections by capsule? What are the ...
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Why is the detcord on canopies wavy?
We know that the wavy lines on the canopy are detcord, to shatter the glass in case of ejection.
Why are they wavy?
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Why does Martin-Baker use a Gloster Meteor as a testbed for ejection seats?
Martin-Baker uses a Gloster Meteor for testing ejection seats, according to their website.
While it's a stylish plane, and a true delight that there are still airworthy fuselages of this plane left, ...
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What is the weight limit for a pilot to eject from an F-100?
What is the maximum weight for a pilot to use the ejection seat in an F-100 fighter?
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What happens to the ejection seat after a pilot ejects?
When a pilot ejects, what happens to the ejection seat? Does the pilot stay in the seat until he lands, or does it get disconnected from the pilot somehow?
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Could ejector seats save lives in commercial aircraft? [duplicate]
If cost were no issue (it could be done cheaply), would installing ejection seats for passengers possibly save lives?
There are certain scenarios (albeit extremely rare ones), where the crew may know ...
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How expensive would it be for ejection seats to be installed on commuter planes?
Statistically, the chances of you being in an aircraft incident are extremely low, and once these seats are in place, you would never have to move them or do maintenance.
The only difficult task is ...
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Is there any form of checklist that a pilot needs to go through before they use their ejection seat?
Obviously, the use of an ejection seat is a last resort tactic but is there anything at all that a pilot must consider, any buttons they need to hit or something similar before they may eject?
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Do you ever get to practice ejecting out of a plane as a fighter pilot?
The military throws away a lot of equipment simply because it doesn't hold up to current standards. So I was wondering the following.
As a fighter pilot, would you ever get a practice run ejecting ...
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In a fighter jet, what is the average weight of the ejection system?
In the old days, pilots had only a parachute pack. (In the really old days they might not even have that.) They had to open the canopy manually and jump out.
Today, fighter jets have zero-zero ...
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Is there a minimum altitude for ejection seats?
Is there generally a minimum altitude for ejecting in order for the sequence to function reliably (all the way to opening the chute, and slowing down to a survivable descent rate)? I've seen ejector ...
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Which procedures or devices do ensure the aircraft stop flying after the pilot has ejected?
Pilots eject from aircraft when it cannot be controlled any more. Ejection seems to happen without delay and few time to secure the aircraft and its weapons.
Pilot ejection, source.
Thanks to @...
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What are the "spur" devices on this U2 pilot's boots?
From this video on YouTube:
What are those devices and what is their purpose?
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Are there any 'smart' ejection seats?
Are there any 'smart' ejection seats that eject automatically when an engine failure occurs or the aircraft gets into to a stall that can't be gotten out of, to save the pilot the decision of whether ...
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Could wingsuits replace or supplement ejection seats? [closed]
I know that ejection seats are good to help save pilots' lives, but they're not foolproof either and the design hasn't changed for decades.
Why don't pilots wear a squirrel suit or wingsuit so that ...
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Why is the rear seat ejected before the front one?
On aircraft with 2 crew placed one in front of each other (tandem) equipped with ejection seats, the rear seat is ejected before the front one (described here for the F-14).
Why is the rear seat ...
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Can an aircraft be controlled after an ejection?
What kind of damage does the ejection process do to the inside of a cockpit or to the aircraft in general?
If ejection were accidentally triggered on the ground (i.e. the ejection wouldn't be ...
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Do any ejector seat designs include controllable thrusters?
Are there any ejector seat designs with built-in thrusters, or boosters, which the pilot can deploy to maneuver himself out of, or away from enemy territory?
A use case might be that after the ...
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