52 Years Ago Today ...

[CoffmanStarter]

Remembering the early pioneers ...

52 yrs ago today, Peter Howard ejected from a Meteor at 250kts/250ft. This was the 1st airborne rocket seat ejection.

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/project/martin_baker/AVM_Peter_Howard/AVM_Peter_Howard_en.jpg

Image Credit : Martin Baker

On Tuesday 13th March 1962 Howard successfully ejected himself from the rear seat the modified Martin-Baker Meteor WA364 at Chalgrove Air Field.

This ejection trial was conducted to prove the ability of a rocket assisted ejection seat to save lives at low level. The aircraft was flying at 250ft, at 290mph.

The rocket pack attached to the underside of the seat generated 3,600lbs of thrust over less than a fifth of a second, giving a peak force of 16G.

More here ...

First Airborne Rocket Seat Ejection (http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/project/martin_baker/howard_peter.htm)

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Howard
Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) at Farnborough
[15th December 1925 - 21st October 2007]

AVM Peter Howard Obituary (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1567776/Air-Vice-Marshal-Peter-Howard.html)

A brave and courageous man ...

[Bob Viking]

Well you know what they say. A volunteer is better than ten pressed men!
BV:eek:

[Warmtoast]

As a member of 99 Sqn I attended the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget in May 1961 and witnessed "Doddy" Hay of Martin Baker making a 'live' ejection from the back of a lorry. He was a very brave man. He ejected, parachute opened and landed safely.

I thought he ejected from a moving lorry as it raced along the runway, but after 53-years my memory is not as it was as the event was reported by Flight Magazine as from a stationary lorry, which is even more bonkers, but that's how technological advances are made.

As reported in Flight.
Martin Baker – Paris 1961 — Flight Magazine 25th May 1961

Perhaps the most interesting exhibit will be the prototype rocket assisted ejection seat which Martin-Baker hope to have on display. This rocket seat will have zero-speed/zero-altitude capability and is especially suited to VTOL aircraft. During the flying programme at Le Bourget on June 3 and 4 it is hoped to demonstrate the capabilities of this seat from a ground rig mounted on a lorry and using a dummy subject.

Flight Magazine 8th June 1961

By no means all the participants were fixed-wing aeroplanes. There were both helicopters and parachutists, one of the latter being W. T. H. Hay of Martin-Baker, who made a dramatic rocket ejection from a stationary lorry. This was the first public demonstration of Martin-Baker’s newest ground-level ejection equipment, which shot Mr Hay about 300ft into the air. On the Saturday, owing to a crosswind, he unfortunately landed on the edge of the runway instead of on the grass.

[Willard Whyte]

One hopes he smoked a pipe and supped on a pint of bitter afterwards.

Or better still had a pipe during the ejection.

[ian16th]

Doddy Hay's autobiography is a 'good read'.

He did quite well for a PTI! :)

[radar101]

If I recall correctly Doddy Hay did so many of these ejections he badly damaged his spine but refused to give up: He schooled himself to grin when he sat down as that is when it hurt the most!!

Incredible

[Haraka]

When I last heard of him ( and it was in the early eighties) Doddy Hay was working as a doorman in the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington.

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Fascinating stuff and very brave individuals. Interesting that the compressed air seats, as used successfully in the early 1940s by the Germans and Swedes, gave way to the rocket seats by the 1950s - was this simply a function of more bang for your buck from a rocket seat, as required by ever-increasing aircraft performance?

[CoffmanStarter]

TOTD ... I believe the Compressed Air seats were larger, heavier and more complex as compared to the "explosive charge" seats ... quite apart from the latter having more oomph than the former.