Originally Posted by
gums
Salute!
What's funny is they eject thru the canopy, more or less, in the F-35. The Harrier folks demanded a very quick system, and it was easier to put primacord all around the bottom several inches of the canopy and blow it at the same time as the seat blows.
Gums sends...
Kind of true Gums, but not driven by the Harrier community alone. Rocket canopies don't work in all scenarios and can be fatal in others - especially for ship operations. An MDC / LDC disrupted canopy is quick for sure but also works above and below the surface, does not provide a collision risk with the ejectee in unfavourable attitudes/airspeeds, does not fall back towards the aircraft when zero/zero with a tailwind, does not plow back towards the deck / parked aircraft / deck personnel when ejecting from a soft cat or bow EFATO etc.
For land ops some of these don't apply or mitigated in a different way. The last MB-equipped aircraft I flew had a rocket canopy
and an LDC around the transparency, to add to the variety of yellow & black handles around the cockpit.