3 ms·

There's no parachuting from 900km/h

jasonwatkinspdx 3y ago
There's been a number of successful supersonic ejections of military pilots over the years. It's extremely dangerous and very likely to fail, but it's better than the alternative. The basic idea is a drogue chute stabilizes and slows the pilot. Whether the same idea could be adapted to a whole plane I don't know, but I would be skeptical of just on the basis that you probably wouldn't trigger such a thing unless the plane has had a substantial failure such that it could overpower any drogue chute.
serf 3y ago
i'd be willing to believe it's an economics thing more-so than a physics thing. one could envisage a '747-like' sized plane with many passenger escape-pods similar to the pod from an B-58 Hustler -- but who would pay the astronomic cost for such a ticket? and similar to what the other person in this thread mentioned : those escape pods won't help during takeoff/landing phases.
- deleted 3y ago
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endymi0n 3y ago
There is at least one documented survival at the insane speed of Mach 3: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/bailing-out-at-mach-3-the-incredible-story-of-bill-weaver-the-first-pilot-to-eject-from-an-sr-71-blackbird/ https://theaviationgeekclub.com/bailing-out-at-mach-3-the-in...
- eszed 3y ago
  Here's Weaver's own account: http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/ http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-fr... I love the serendipitous detail of what happened on his next flight, though I'm sure it was not so amusing when it happened.
  - dotancohen 3y ago
    Well, his _next_ flight was to see the body of Jim. But yes, the next Habu flight started off interesting.
    - eszed 3y ago
      Lol! I up-voted you (seriously, I did) because this is close to the platonic ideal of a HN comment: egregious pedantry, plus a nerd-flex. For those out of the loop on the nerd-flex, "Habu" was an unofficial, insidery nickname for the SR-71. It's the name of a venomous snake from somewhere with an SR-71 base (was it Okinawa? I think it was Okinawa), that the locals applied to the plane, because it (like the snake) was black and dangerous-looking.

There's been a number of successful supersonic ejections of military pilots over the years. It's extremely dangerous and very likely to fail, but it's better than the alternative. The basic idea is a drogue chute stabilizes and slows the pilot. Whether the same idea could be adapted to a whole plane I don't know, but I would be skeptical of just on the basis that you probably wouldn't trigger such a thing unless the plane has had a substantial failure such that it could overpower any drogue chute.

serf 3y ago

i'd be willing to believe it's an economics thing more-so than a physics thing. one could envisage a '747-like' sized plane with many passenger escape-pods similar to the pod from an B-58 Hustler -- but who would pay the astronomic cost for such a ticket? and similar to what the other person in this thread mentioned : those escape pods won't help during takeoff/landing phases.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

endymi0n 3y ago

There is at least one documented survival at the insane speed of Mach 3: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/bailing-out-at-mach-3-the-incredible-story-of-bill-weaver-the-first-pilot-to-eject-from-an-sr-71-blackbird/ https://theaviationgeekclub.com/bailing-out-at-mach-3-the-in...

eszed 3y ago
Here's Weaver's own account: http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/ http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-fr... I love the serendipitous detail of what happened on his next flight, though I'm sure it was not so amusing when it happened.
- dotancohen 3y ago
  Well, his _next_ flight was to see the body of Jim. But yes, the next Habu flight started off interesting.
  - eszed 3y ago
    Lol! I up-voted you (seriously, I did) because this is close to the platonic ideal of a HN comment: egregious pedantry, plus a nerd-flex. For those out of the loop on the nerd-flex, "Habu" was an unofficial, insidery nickname for the SR-71. It's the name of a venomous snake from somewhere with an SR-71 base (was it Okinawa? I think it was Okinawa), that the locals applied to the plane, because it (like the snake) was black and dangerous-looking.