Ejection seat

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Various ejection seats

In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system

designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft
(usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is
propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocket
motor, carrying the pilot with it. The concept of an ejectable
escape crew capsule has also been tried. Once clear of the
aircraft, the ejection seat deploys a parachute. Ejection seats
are common on certain types of military aircraft.

History
Martin-Baker WY6AM ejection seat.

United States Air Force F-15 Eagle ejection seat test using a mannequin.

A bungee-assisted escape from an aircraft took place in 1910.

In 1916 Everard Calthrop, an early inventor of parachutes,
patented an ejector seat using compressed air.[1]

The modern layout for an ejection seat was first proposed by

Romanian inventor Anastase Dragomir in the late 1920s. The
design featured a parachuted cell (a dischargeable chair from
an aircraft or other vehicle). It was successfully tested on 25
August 1929 at the Paris-Orly Airport near Paris and in
October 1929 at Băneasa, near Bucharest. Dragomir patented
his "catapult-able cockpit" at the French Patent Office.[note 1]
The design was perfected during World War II. Prior to this,
the only means of escape from an incapacitated aircraft was
to jump clear ("bail out"), and in many cases this was difficult
due to injury, the difficulty of egress from a confined space, g
forces, the airflow past the aircraft, and other factors.

The first ejection seats were developed independently during

World War II by Heinkel and SAAB. Early models were
powered by compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted
with such a system was the Heinkel He 280 prototype jet-
engined fighter in 1940. One of the He 280 test pilots, Helmut
Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken
aircraft with an ejection seat on 13 January 1942 after his
control surfaces iced up and became inoperative. The fighter
had been being used in tests of the Argus As 014 impulse jets
for Fieseler Fi 103 missile development. It had its usual HeS
8A turbojets removed, and was towed aloft from the
Erprobungsstelle Rechlin central test facility of the Luftwaffe in
Germany by a pair of Bf 110C tugs in a heavy snow-shower. At
2,400 m (7,875 ft), Schenk found he had no control, jettisoned
his towline, and ejected.[2] The He 280 was never put into
production status. The first operational type built anywhere to
provide ejection seats for the crew was the Heinkel He 219
Uhu night fighter in 1942.
The Hungarian RMI-8 experimental interceptor fighter had two
DB 605 engines in a push-pull configuration in order to
achieve 800 km/h top speed. To save pilots a spring-driven
catapult seat was developed in a few months time, but the
prototype has been destroyed in 1944 during an air raid,
shortly before its maiden flight. No one other prototype was
finished before the fall of Budapest.[3]

In Sweden, a version using compressed air was tested in

1941. A gunpowder ejection seat was developed by Bofors
and tested in 1943 for the Saab 21. The first test in the air
was on a Saab 17 on 27 February 1944,[4] and the first real
use occurred by Lt. Bengt Johansson[note 2] on 29 July 1946
after a mid-air collision between a J 21 and a J 22.[5]

As the first operational military jet in late 1944 to ever feature

one, the winner of the German Volksjäger "people's fighter"
home defense jet fighter design competition; the lightweight
Heinkel He 162A Spatz, featured a new type of ejection seat,
this time fired by an explosive cartridge. In this system, the
seat rode on wheels set between two pipes running up the
back of the cockpit. When lowered into position, caps at the
top of the seat fitted over the pipes to close them. Cartridges,
basically identical to shotgun shells, were placed in the
bottom of the pipes, facing upward. When fired, the gases
would fill the pipes, "popping" the caps off the end, and
thereby forcing the seat to ride up the pipes on its wheels and
out of the aircraft. By the end of the war, the Dornier Do 335
Pfeil — primarily from it having a rear-mounted engine (of the
twin engines powering the design) powering a pusher
propeller located at the aft end of the fuselage presenting a
hazard to a normal "bailout" escape — and a few late-war
prototype aircraft were also fitted with ejection seats.

After World War II, the need for such systems became
pressing, as aircraft speeds were getting ever higher, and it
was not long before the sound barrier was broken. Manual
escape at such speeds would be impossible. The United
States Army Air Forces experimented with downward-ejecting
systems operated by a spring, but it was the work of James
Martin and his company Martin-Baker that proved crucial.

Seat on display at RAF Museum Cosford

The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker system took place
on 24 July 1946, when fitter Bernard Lynch ejected from a
Gloster Meteor Mk III jet. Shortly afterward, on 17 August
1946, 1st Sgt. Larry Lambert was the first live U.S. ejectee.
Lynch demonstrated the ejection seat at the Daily Express Air
Pageant in 1948, ejecting from a Meteor.[6] Martin-Baker
ejector seats were fitted to prototype and production aircraft
from the late 1940s, and the first emergency use of such a
seat occurred in 1949 during testing of the jet-powered
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 experimental flying wing.

Early seats used a solid propellant charge to eject the pilot

and seat by igniting the charge inside a telescoping tube
attached to the seat. As aircraft speeds increased still further,
this method proved inadequate to get the pilot sufficiently
clear of the airframe. Increasing the amount of propellant
risked damaging the occupant's spine, so experiments with
rocket propulsion began. In 1958, the Convair F-102 Delta
Dagger was the first aircraft to be fitted with a rocket-
propelled seat. Martin-Baker developed a similar design, using
multiple rocket units feeding a single nozzle. The greater
thrust from this configuration had the advantage of being able
to eject the pilot to a safe height even if the aircraft was on or
very near the ground.
An Aviation Structural Mechanic works on an ejection seat removed from the
cockpit of an EA-6B Prowler aboard USS John C. Stennis.

In the early 1960s, deployment of rocket-powered ejection

seats designed for use at supersonic speeds began in such
planes as the Convair F-106 Delta Dart. Six pilots have ejected
at speeds exceeding 700 knots (1,300 km/h; 810 mph). The
highest altitude at which a Martin-Baker seat was deployed
was 57,000 ft (17,400 m) (from a Canberra bomber in 1958).
Following an accident on 30 July 1966 in the attempted
launch of a D-21 drone, two Lockheed M-21[7] crew members
ejected at Mach 3.25 at an altitude of 80,000 ft (24,000 m).
The pilot was recovered successfully, but the launch control
officer drowned after a water landing. Despite these records,
most ejections occur at fairly low speeds and altitudes, when
the pilot can see that there is no hope of regaining aircraft
control before impact with the ground.

Late in the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy
became concerned about its pilots ejecting over hostile
territory and those pilots either being captured or killed and
the losses in men and aircraft in attempts to rescue them.
Both services began a program titled Air Crew Escape/Rescue
Capability or Aerial Escape and Rescue Capability (AERCAB)
ejection seats (both terms have been used by the US military
and defence industry), where after the pilot ejected, the
ejection seat would fly him to a location far enough away
from where he ejected to where he could safely be picked up.
A Request for Proposals for concepts for AERCAB ejection
seats were issued in the late 1960s. Three companies
submitted papers for further development: A Rogallo wing
design by Bell Systems; a gyrocopter design by Kaman
Aircraft; and a mini-conventional fixed wing aircraft employing
a Princeton Wing (i.e. a wing made of flexible material that
rolls out and then becomes rigid by means of internal struts
or supports etc. deploying) by Fairchild Hiller. All three, after
ejection, would be propelled by small turbojet engine
developed for target drones. With the exception of the Kaman
design, the pilot would still be required to parachute to the
ground after reaching a safety-point for rescue. The AERCAB
project was terminated in the 1970s with the end of the
Vietnam War.[8] The Kaman design, in early 1972, was the only
one which was to reach the hardware stage. It came close to
being tested with a special landing-gear platform attached to
the AERCAB ejection seat for first-stage ground take offs and
landings with a test pilot.[9]

Pilot safety

Lt. (j.g.) William Belden ejects from an A-4E Skyhawk as it rolls into the carrier's
catwalk after a brake failure on the deck of the USS Shangri-La on 2 July 1970.
The pilot was recovered by helicopter.[10]

The purpose of an ejection seat is pilot survival. The pilot

typically experiences an acceleration of about 12–14g.
Western seats usually impose lighter loads on the pilots;
1960s–70s era Soviet technology often goes up to 20–22 g
(with SM-1 and KM-1 gunbarrel-type ejection seats).
Compression fractures of vertebrae are a recurrent side effect
of ejection.

It was theorised early on that ejection at supersonic speeds

would be unsurvivable; extensive tests, including Project
Whoosh with chimpanzee test subjects, were undertaken to
determine that it was feasible.[11]
The capabilities of the NPP Zvezda K-36 were unintentionally
demonstrated at the Fairford Air Show on 24 July 1993 when
the pilots of two MiG-29 fighters ejected after a mid-air
collision.[12]

The minimal ejection altitude for ACES II seat in inverted flight

is about 140 feet (43 m) above ground level at 150 KIAS, while
the Russian counterpart – K-36DM has the minimal ejection
altitude from inverted flight of 100 feet (30 m) AGL. When an
aircraft is equipped with the NPP Zvezda K-36DM ejection
seat and the pilot is wearing the КО-15 protective gear, he is
able to eject at airspeeds from 0 to 1,400 kilometres per hour
(870 mph) and altitudes of 0 to 25 km (16 mi or about
82,000 ft). The K-36DM ejection seat features drag chutes and
a small shield that rises between the pilot's legs to deflect air
around the pilot.[13]

Pilots have successfully ejected from underwater in a handful

of instances, after being forced to ditch in water. Documented
evidence exists that pilots of the US[14] and Indian navies have
performed this feat.[15][16]

As of 20 June 2011 – when two Spanish Air Force pilots

ejected over San Javier airport – the number of lives saved by
Martin-Baker products was 7,402 from 93 air forces.[17] The
company runs a club called the 'Ejection Tie Club' and gives
survivors a unique tie and lapel pin.[18] The total figure for all
types of ejection seats is unknown, but may be considerably
higher.

Early models of the ejection seat were equipped with only an

overhead ejection handle which doubled in function by forcing
the pilot to assume the right posture and by having him pull a
screen down to protect both his face and oxygen mask from
the subsequent air blast. Martin Baker added a secondary
handle in the front of the seat to allow ejection even when
pilots weren't able to reach upwards because of high g-force.
Later (e.g. in Martin Baker's MK9) the top handle was
discarded because the lower handle had proven easier to
operate and the technology of helmets had advanced to also
protect from the air blast.[19]

Egress systems
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A warning applied on the cockpit side of some aircraft using an ejection seat
system intended especially for the maintenance and emergency crews
The "standard" ejection system operates in two stages. First,
the entire canopy or hatch above the aviator is opened,
shattered, or jettisoned, and the seat and occupant are
launched through the opening. In most earlier aircraft this
required two separate actions by the aviator, while later
egress system designs, such as the Advanced Concept
Ejection Seat model 2 (ACES II), perform both functions as a
single action.

Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejects from his F-16 aircraft with an ACES II ejection
seat on 14 September 2003 at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Stricklin was not
injured.

The ACES II ejection seat is used in most American-built

fighters. The A-10 uses connected firing handles that activate
both the canopy jettison systems, followed by the seat
ejection. The F-15 has the same connected system as the A-
10 seat. Both handles accomplish the same task, so pulling
either one suffices. The F-16 has only one handle located
between the pilot's knees, since the cockpit is too narrow for
side-mounted handles.
Non-standard egress systems include Downward Track (used
for some crew positions in bomber aircraft, including the B-52
Stratofortress), Canopy Destruct (CD) and Through-Canopy
Penetration (TCP), Drag Extraction, Encapsulated Seat, and
even Crew Capsule.

Early models of the F-104 Starfighter were equipped with a

Downward Track ejection seat due to the hazard of the T-tail.
In order to make this work, the pilot was equipped with "spurs"
which were attached to cables that would pull the legs inward
so the pilot could be ejected. Following this development,
some other egress systems began using leg retractors as a
way to prevent injuries to flailing legs, and to provide a more
stable center of gravity. Some models of the F-104 were
equipped with upward-ejecting seats.

Similarly, two of the six ejection seats on the B-52

Stratofortress fire downward, through hatch openings on the
bottom of the aircraft; the downward hatches are released
from the aircraft by a thruster that unlocks the hatch, while
gravity and wind remove the hatch and arm the seat. The four
seats on the forward upper deck (two of them, EWO and
Gunner, facing the rear of the airplane) fire upwards as usual.
Any such downward-firing system is of no use on or near the
ground if aircraft is in level flight at the time of the ejection.
Aircraft designed for low-level use sometimes have ejection
seats which fire through the canopy, as waiting for the canopy
to be ejected is too slow. Many aircraft types (e.g., the BAE
Hawk and the Harrier line of aircraft) use Canopy Destruct
systems, which have an explosive cord (MDC – Miniature
Detonation Cord or FLSC – Flexible Linear Shaped Charge)
embedded within the acrylic plastic of the canopy. The MDC
is initiated when the eject handle is pulled, and shatters the
canopy over the seat a few milliseconds before the seat is
launched. This system was developed for the Hawker
Siddeley Harrier family of VTOL aircraft as ejection may be
necessary while the aircraft was in the hover, and jettisoning
the canopy might result in the pilot and seat striking it. This
system is also used in the T-6 Texan II and F-35 Lightning II.

The ACES II Ejection seat commonly used on United States Air Force jets

Through-Canopy Penetration is similar to Canopy Destruct,

but a sharp spike on the top of the seat, known as the "shell
tooth", strikes the underside of the canopy and shatters it. The
A-10 Thunderbolt II is equipped with canopy breakers on
either side of its headrest in the event that the canopy fails to
jettison. The T-6 is also equipped with such breakers if the
MDC fails to detonate. In ground emergencies, a ground
crewman or pilot can use a breaker knife attached to the
inside of the canopy to shatter the transparency. The A-6
Intruder and EA-6B Prowler seats were capable of ejecting
through the canopy, with canopy jettison a separate option if
there is enough time.

CD and TCP systems cannot be used with canopies made of

flexible materials, such as the Lexan polycarbonate canopy
used on the F-16.

Soviet VTOL naval fighter planes such as the Yakovlev Yak-38

were equipped with ejection seats which were automatically
activated during at least some part of the flight envelope.

Drag Extraction is the lightest and simplest egress system

available, and has been used on many experimental aircraft.
Halfway between simply "bailing out" and using explosive-
eject systems, Drag Extraction uses the airflow past the
aircraft (or spacecraft) to move the aviator out of the cockpit
and away from the stricken craft on a guide rail. Some operate
like a standard ejector seat, by jettisoning the canopy, then
deploying a drag chute into the airflow. That chute pulls the
occupant out of the aircraft, either with the seat or following
release of the seat straps, who then rides off the end of a rail
extending far enough out to help clear the structure. In the
case of the Space Shuttle, the astronauts would have ridden a
long, curved rail, blown by the wind against their bodies, then
deployed their chutes after free-falling to a safe altitude.

Crewmember escape capsule from a B-58 Hustler

Encapsulated Seat egress systems were developed for use in

the B-58 Hustler and B-70 Valkyrie supersonic bombers.
These seats were enclosed in an air-operated clamshell,
which permitted the aircrew to escape at airspeeds and
altitudes high enough to otherwise cause bodily harm. These
seats were designed to allow the pilot to control the plane
even with the clamshell closed, and the capsule would float in
case of water landings.

Some aircraft designs, such as the General Dynamics F-111,

do not have individual ejection seats, but instead, the entire
section of the airframe containing the crew can be ejected as
a single capsule. In this system, very powerful rockets are
used, and multiple large parachutes are used to bring the
capsule down, in a manner similar to the Launch Escape
System of the Apollo spacecraft. On landing, an airbag
system is used to cushion the landing, and this also acts as a
flotation device if the Crew Capsule lands in water.

Zero-zero ejection seat

K-36DM Ejection seat used on MiG-29

A zero-zero ejection seat is designed to safely extract upward

and land its occupant from a grounded stationary position
(i.e., zero altitude and zero airspeed), specifically from aircraft
cockpits. The zero-zero capability was developed to help
aircrews escape upward from unrecoverable emergencies
during low-altitude and/or low-speed flight, as well as ground
mishaps. Parachutes require a minimum altitude for opening,
to give time for deceleration to a safe landing speed. Thus,
prior to the introduction of zero-zero capability, ejections
could only be performed above minimum altitudes and
airspeeds. If the seat was to work from zero (aircraft) altitude,
the seat would have to lift itself to a sufficient altitude.

These early seats fired the seat from the aircraft with a
cannon, providing the high impulse needed over the very short
length on the cannon barrel within the seat. This limited the
total energy, and thus the additional height possible, as
otherwise the high forces needed would crush the pilot.

Zero-zero technology uses small rockets to propel the seat

upward to an adequate altitude and a small explosive charge
to open the parachute canopy quickly for a successful
parachute descent, so that proper deployment of the
parachute no longer relies on airspeed and altitude. The seat
cannon clears the seat from the aircraft, then the under-seat
rocket pack fires to lift the seat to altitude. As the rockets fire
for longer than the cannon, they do not require the same high
forces. Zero-zero rocket seats also reduced forces on the pilot
during any ejection, reducing injuries and spinal compression.

Other aircraft
The Kamov Ka-50, which entered limited service with Russian
forces in 1995, was the first production helicopter with an
ejection seat. The system is similar to that of a conventional
fixed-wing aircraft however the main rotors are equipped with
explosive bolts to jettison the blades moments before the
seat is fired.

The Lunar Lander Research Vehicle (LLRV)/Training Vehicle

(LLTV) used ejection seats. Neil Armstrong ejected on 6 May
1968; Joe Algranti & Stuart M. Present, later.[20]

Early flights of NASA's Space Shuttle, which used Columbia,

were with a crew of two, both provided with ejector seats,
(STS-1 to STS-4), but the seats were disabled and then
removed as the crew size was increased.[21] Columbia and
Enterprise were the only two shuttle orbiters fitted with
ejection seats.

The Soviet shuttle Buran was planned to be fitted with K-36RB

(K-36M-11F35) seats, but as it was unmanned on its single
and only flight, the seats were never installed.

The only commercial jetliner ever fitted with ejection seats

was the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144. However, the seats were
present in the prototype only, and were only available for the
crew and not the passengers. The Tu-144 that crashed at the
Paris Air Show in 1973 was a production model, and did not
have ejection seats.

The only spacecraft ever flown with installed ejection seats

were the Space Shuttle, the Soviet Vostok and American
Gemini series.[22]

See also
Caterpillar Club
Dynamic response index
Escape pod
Lifeboat
Pressure suit

References
Notes

1. Patent no. 678566, of April 2, 1930, Nouveau système de

montage des parachutes dans les appareils de locomotion
aérienne
2. , who later changed his name to Järkenstedt

Citations

1. "1910s" . Ejection-history.org.uk. Archived from the

original on 2010-11-22. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
2. Green, William (1986). The Warplanes of the Third Reich.
New York: Galahad Books. p. 363. ISBN 0-88365-666-3.
3. "Dr. Hegedűs, Ernő - Ozsváth, Sándor: Többfeladatú harci
repülőgépek rendszeresítésének hatása a német és
magyar repülőipari kapacitások kihasználtságára a
második világháborúban" (PDF). Katonai Logisztika. 21/II:
149–177. 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-
07-30. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
4. "Moved" . Canit.se. Archived from the original on 2012-
07-16. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
5. "Moved" . Canit.se. Archived from the original on 2011-
09-27. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
6. "flight july | expressat gatwick | a/r d/wl | 1948 | 1092 |
Flight Archive" . Flightglobal.com. 1948-07-15. Archived
from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
7. Crickmore, Paul F. "Lockheed's Blackbirds: A-12, YF-12 and
SR-71", Wings of Fame, Volume 8, AIRtime Publishing Inc.,
Westport, Connecticut, 1997, ISBN 1-880588-23-4, page 90
8. Hearst Magazines (September 1969). "A Hot Seat" .
Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. p. 90.
9. "1972 | 0502 | Flight Archive" . Flightglobal.com. 1972-03-
02. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved
2012-10-30.
10. "Photo #: NH 90350" . Naval Historical Center. 16 April
2001. Archived from the original on 2016-10-31. Retrieved
2016-10-31.
11. Bushnell, David (1958). "History of Research in Space
Biology and Biodynamics 1946–1958" . Historical Division,
Office of Information Services. New Mexico: Air Force
Missile Development Center, Air Research and
Development Command, Holloman Air Force Base. p. 56.
ASIN B0019QSQ1E . Archived from the original on 2015-
05-01. Retrieved 2014-05-17.
12. "The Mig-29 crash at Fairford Airbase" . Sirviper.com.
2006. Archived from the original on 2018-02-06. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
13. "Ejection seat К-36D-3,5" . NPP Zvezda. Archived from the
original on 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
14. "Underwater Ejection" . The Ejection Site. April 15, 1997.
Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved
2012-04-20.
15. Vinod Pasricha (June 1986). "Aircraft Underwater" . Bharat
Rakshak. Archived from the original on 2014-09-23.
16. "Navy's first underwater ejection" . The New Indian
Express. 4 September 2009. Archived from the original on
2016-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
17. "PARIS: Martin-Baker seats save in Spain" . Flight Global.
June 21, 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-10-31.
Retrieved 2016-10-31.
18. "Ejection Tie Club" . Martin-Baker. Archived from the
original on 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
19. "The history and developments of Martin-Baker escape
systems" (PDF). Martin-Baker. pp. 4, 17, 19, 36–37.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-03.
20. "Watch Neil Armstrong Narrowly" . Archived from the
original on 2012-12-28. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
21. Dennis R. Jenkins: Space Shuttle - The History of
Developing the National Space Transportation System,
Dennis R. Jenkins Publishing 1999, Page 272, ISBN 0-
9633974-4-3
22. "The Ejection Site" . Archived from the original on 2013-
04-03. Retrieved 2013-05-15.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ejector seats.

"Up, Out and Down" . Flight International. 14 November

1952.
"Safety for Service Aircrew" . Flight International. 16
December 1965.
 Kevin Coyne (1996–2003). "The
External image
Ejection Site" . Martin Baker Mk 1
Kalikiano Kalei (February 27, 2008). ejection seat drawing

"A History of Military Aircraft Egress Martin Baker Mk 1

Systems (Part One of Three)" . ejection seat drawing
by Flight Global
"IN PICTURES: Lethbridge CF-18 jet
fighter crash" . The Globe and Mail.
July 23, 2010.
Michael Bennett (1980–2014). "Ejection History" .
"Mk10 seat" . Martin-Baker. Archived from the original on
2007-10-07.
"In Pictures: A Potted History Of Ejection Seats" . Aviation
Week. Oct 28, 2016.

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