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What it's like to eject out of a military jet
- CaliforniaKarl 7y agoThe web page on the Ejection Tie Club, with member stories: http://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/ http://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/
- everybodyknows 7y ago>I was drifting backwards into the power lines and could only see each power line as it appeared from behind me ... >I was given a physical examination at the Air Force hospital and told that I must be under observation by medical personnel for 24 hours. I told the doctor that I was going to the officers’ club for a drink, if he wanted to observe me there. Ejectee #2176
- Implicated 7y agoWhy are they breaking legs/vertebrae upon landing? I assume it's due to the velocity in which they hit the ground - but having parachutes I'm not sure why. Anyone have insight?
- trothamel 7y agoI think it's the set of compromises. You'd want a round parachute because the pilot might be unconscious for some or all of the descent - but that makes it harder to control the horizontal velocity. I'd also think that an ejection being unplanned matters. Skydivers and paratroopers can try to plan their drop zones, while pilots can't. (There's a famous story of an ejection from an SR-71 where the Pilot wasn't sure which of about 5 different states he was in.) Pilots are probably also a lot less experienced with landings than skydivers would be.
- Scoundreller 7y agoAs I recall from my 1 solo-ish skydiving experience: The standard rectangular parachutes let you move at a max of 20mph (or km/h?). And that's relative to wind. If the wind is 21mph, you can't go against it as an amateur. I figure the round chutes are even worse at this, so you could be forced in one direction against your wishes. From what I can see here: the chute deploys as soon as you eject at some hundreds of mph. It's probably big and therefore not very controllable. Finally, I think you land in the seat, so it's hard to control your landing.
- moioci 7y agoI believe the chutes are set not to deploy above 15,000 feet. Also, many of the ejector seat have a seat-man separator motor so you don't land in the seat.
- dbcurtis 7y agoI think just the ejection force can break bones if you are unlucky. A friend of mine had to punch out of a Harrier at low altitude. When he got out of the infirmary months later he was 2cm shorter from vertebrae compression than when he joined the RAF.
- dymk 7y agoHaving jumped out of a plane exactly once, the speed at which you approach the ground is actually still pretty fast even with the parachute purpose-made for beginners. I imagine also being strapped into a 200lb chair complicates landing gracefully as well.
- hansthehorse 7y agoThe seat is designed to fall away after the parachute deploys.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jaclaz 7y agoAFAIK traditional (WWII) and most military type of "round" parachutes come down "fast", much faster that what you may be used seeing in modern videos with "sport" rectangular/directional parachutes, where they can "brake" and practically land while practically at a standstill. Paratroopers have some intensive training, and the standard is to land with a sort of somersault, see this (British Army) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2f1u928xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2f1u928xk exactly to minimise the risk of fractures, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_landing_fall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_landing_fall Probably pilots (that may have additional issues with the G suit and the seat) cannot in many case do the same. And also many "normal" users may fail at making a "good" landing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachuting#Most_common_injuries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachuting#Most_common_injuri...
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- KineticLensman 7y agoI was a civilian student sport parachutist in the late 80’s before square canopies were in widespread use. We used Vietnam-vintage ejector-seat round parachutes that were modified to include a ‘double-L’ hole on the rear panels [0]. This created forward motion and gave some steerability, albeit at the cost of increasing the sink rate. We always landed with a parachute landing fall because the downward speed was a potential ankle-breaker. Basically you kept your feet and legs together, and as you came in the inevitable lateral motion automatically dragged you over sideways, and you could roll back on to your feet. I landed about 70 jumps, and by the time I stopped I could achieve good accuracy in low wind conditions (landing within a yard or two of a target after deploying at 2500 feet). [0] http://www.parachutehistory.com/round/combo.html http://www.parachutehistory.com/round/combo.html
- Someone 7y agoI think ”Legs may get broken, vertebrae may be compressed.” doesn’t just refer to the sentence immediately preceding it (”you and the seat part company, and you land—hard”), but to the entire paragraph, starting with ”Ejecting at up to 65,000 feet from an aircraft flying at 700 mph is a violent process.”
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- dymk 7y ago> Pilots hesitate to pull the ejection seat handle because “we know that we are condemning a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, paid for with taxpayers' money,” Matthew adds. I wonder why planes as expensive as these don't have some sort of a remote-pilot feature that could kick in in case of emergencies like this - once the in-seat pilot has ejected, at least a best effort attempt at landing the plane could take place.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoI would assume the best effort attempt has already been made before ejection.
- ObscureScience 7y agoBut then why would the pilot hesitate to eject? They likely want to eject before they blackout, which is why I can imagine there could be a small chance to save the plane at human-intolerable g-forces.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoThey hesitate because in a fast moving emergency you can never be sure whether you have done everything or not. You have to decide in a split second. I also don't think a lot of problems are because of high g forces. Most problems are probably because of stall or other misjudgments.
- Aenyn 7y agoLooks like there is a lot of chances they made a mistake then, and so an autopilot landing might actually work.
- mopsi 7y agoEjections usually happen after the aircraft becomes unflyable. Birdstrike is a common cause, see this example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2zB7Z-b6Kc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2zB7Z-b6Kc The jet ingests a bird shortly after takeoff, causing engine damage and shutdown. Pilots try to restart the engine, after unsuccessful attempts they point the aircraft towards the nearest open field and eject. There wasn't much else to do. At low altitude, low speed, and without engine power and a place to land, the jet was going to crash one way or another.
- bangonkeyboard 7y agoWhat it's like to eject into a thunderstorm: https://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/ https://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/
- orbital-decay 7y agoWhat it's like to be ejected involuntarily, at 3.2M and 78000ft/23.8km altitude: http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/ http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-fr...
- xtiansimon 7y agoNice. Has that feel of Tom Wolfe’s ‘the Right Stuff’
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- effnorwood 7y agoBad
- tony 7y agoI would not want to be in the position of ejecting. The stories I hear about bones breaking and even fatalities caused by the system seems like a risk in itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCORwUxlNQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCORwUxlNQo - XB-70 mid-air collision ejection story > ...Today, the ejectee will "only" suffer from 18 Gs... Related: I'd like to extend this to also include atmospheric re-entry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCxNIaBC_r8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCxNIaBC_r8 (bonus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_bkY7-9c8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_bkY7-9c8s for channeling Rocky and Bullwinkle) Diagram of re-entry window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry#Notable_atmospheric_entry_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry#Notable_atmo... There used to be ejection seats in early space shuttles (https://youtu.be/CwLx4L5NRU0?t=419 https://youtu.be/CwLx4L5NRU0?t=419). After the mishaps with SS there was discussion about reintegrating ejection mechanisms, but it'd add weight, cost a lot to redesign, etc. This documentary talks about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4ZlswGvpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4ZlswGvpE
- wmij 7y agoI was at an Air Show at the old Willow Grove NAS in Pennsylvania when I was a kid and there was a Navy S3 Viking Jet set as a ground display. They were allowing people time where you could get into the cockpit. A 7 year old kid was in one of the front seats and activated the ejection mechanism and was killed after being ejected and landing on the nearby tarmac. As I remember, the other people in the plane at the time were injured due to burns and other debris but survived. We were about 150 feet away from the planes on display and I remember hearing how loud and sudden the explosion was. Not sure what happened my Dad said looks like an ejection seat just went off. I sometimes think back to that day and always do whenever I hear about or come across stories ejecting from an aircraft and how terrifying it must have been to that kid.
- pm90 7y agohttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19800707&id=HpcyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gucFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4108,1220581&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19800707&id=...
- inetsee 7y agoThe article only mentioned in passing NPP Zvezda, which is a Russian ejection seat manufacturer. I remember reading years ago how much trouble the company was having getting the US Defense Department to even consider using their ejection seats. At the time I vaguely remember seeing a couple of Youtube videos showing Russian ejection seats in action. In one, a Russian fighter jet suffered a complete engine failure in a two engine plane. The remaining engine spun the plane around and pointed it straight at the ground. The pilot ejected just a few hundred feet about the ground, and survived with minor injuries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Lz-ssypaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Lz-ssypaw In the second one, two MIGs collided, slicing the nose off one of the MIGs. Both pilots ejected safely, and also only suffered minor injuries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Lz-ssypaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Lz-ssypaw
- peteretep 7y ago> I remember reading years ago how much trouble the company was having getting the US Defense Department to even consider using their ejection seats The US counter-intelligence chief who approved a Russian supplier in US military jets would need firing from a large cannon, largely because the Russian intelligence chief who didn't use it as an opportunity for all sorts of mischief would also need firing from a large cannon for gross incompetence.
- cbanek 7y agoI also think it's interesting to think about when you might need to eject on the ground without moving (zero-zero). It's harder than you think, since you have to gain enough altitude to get time for the chute to open. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejection_seat#Zero-zero_ejection_seat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejection_seat#Zero-zero_ejecti... Fascinating engineering.
- lordnacho 7y ago“It was inconvenient,” one ejectee says, dryly. He was in the backseat of a plane when it collided with a bird in June 1999. “The overhead canopy was smashed and there was blood and gore everywhere,” he recounts. “I didn't realize it was the bird—I thought it was the pilot and when I looked in front he wasn't there, so I ejected. I broke five vertebrae and so lost a few centimeters,” he says wryly. In fact the pilot was there, just bent over checking for damage, and later able to land the plane. So it's possible one person ejects, but not the other? Also from the description of the seat wouldn't you know if the guy in front of you had ejected? The seat is really big. And what if you suspect the other person is unconscious? How do you pull the chord on his behalf?
- pirocks 7y agoI believe most ejection cable aircraft have a switch for changing between "eject both of us", and "eject just me". The actual ejection is set off by a rather large, difficult to use on accident, bar/lever. By default set to "eject just me". IIRC the sr-71 even had an indicator light showing if the other guy had ejected.
- marianicolae 7y agoYou can listen to this article in audio: https://www.listle.io/#/article/3111329474 https://www.listle.io/#/article/3111329474