I came across this video clip today. It shows the late Neil Armstrong ejecting from a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle in May 1968.
Watching it set me searching for footage of the early development of ejection seats, a subject in which I've long taken an interest. The first practical ejection seat was developed during the 1920's. The technology was put into production in Nazi Germany during World War II, being tested on a Junkers Ju 87 dive-bomber as shown below.
The first successful life-saving ejection took place on January 13th, 1942, from a Heinkel He 280 prototype.
After World War II the British Martin-Baker company pioneered the development of modern ejection seats. In my youth I remember reading a book, 'The Man in the Hot Seat', describing those early years and the experiences of 'Doddy' Hay, Martin-Baker's ejection seat 'test pilot'. It's long out of print, but for those interested, used copies are available. It's worth reading. Here's a video clip of early tests of Martin-Baker ejection seats.
Martin-Baker ejection seats would go on to become standard equipment in most of the Western world's combat aircraft of the 1950's and 1960's. This famous photograph shows test pilot George Aird ejecting from a pre-production example of the English Electric Lightning fighter in September 1962. You can read about the crash here, and see more photographs of the crash site here.
Of course, even when ejection seats became standard equipment, that didn't guarantee that pilots would always use them quickly enough to get out safely in the event of disaster. The US Air Force produced this training film back in 1981 to try to teach aircrews how best to use their life-saving seats.
The Soviet Union built some of the best ejection seats in the world - certainly they were regarded as superior to their Western equivalents during the 1980's. The crash of a MiG-29 fighter at the Paris Air Show in 1989 demonstrated just how good they were (and still are).
Finally, here's an excerpt from a documentary narrated by Jeremy Clarkson. It repeats a little of the test footage from Martin-Baker, but adds a lot of new material.
I had an enjoyable time first looking for, then viewing, this old footage. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Peter
Am I the only one who thinks they should have put a big bell on the top of the tower?
ReplyDeleteI still carry my S-3 Viking Escape Systems Training Certification card, partially because I carried one such card for over 30 years as part of my Job over those years and partially because I have Catherine Bell's autograph on the cover (yeah, that Catherine Bell). Every three months over that 30 year period I would have to go out with certified AME/PR and do the 4-3-2-1 brief as it was known in our community, I could give that briefing today, in my sleep.
ReplyDeleteBT: Jimmy T sends.
An RAF historian told me once that back in the early days of ejection seats, there were a number of paraplegic RAF ground instructors - former pilots who had to eject and who were too tall to do it safely. Ti took a while to sort out how to make one size fit (and protect) all.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
I followed various links from one of your aircraft posts, looking for some history on this subject. There was serious interest in buying Russian seats for some of our jets, after the Soviet breakup. Their performance envelope was much better. This seems to have forced our own seat makers to get their ass in gear, or lose their entire customer base. Nothing like some competition to get people moving!
ReplyDeleteI was looking at your pictures of ejection seat tests, because my favorite Uncle recently passed away who served in the Navy during WWII. After the war, he tested ejection seats out in EL Centro Ca and the Salton Sea. Between the ejection seats and parachute testing, he logged over 200 jumps. Took a lot of guts!
ReplyDelete