Just a few points to add to the discussions here. I don't know whether the professional pilots among you know just how much work is continually on going in the development of military aircraft escape systems? Any advances that can be made to better ensure the safety of aircrew are looked at daily by a number of experts at a number of different companies.
All the different points mentioned here on ejection sequence timings, parachute opening shock at different altitudes etc are in constant development, and quite often with each new aircraft entering service comes a whole new range of systems - from a new seat, a new parachute, through to better designed clothing. Retrofits are also made, and a lot of work goes into ensuring the systems on current in service aircraft are enhanced where possible, the focus is not just on future aircraft.
With the latest ejections seats all the pilot needs to do is pull the handle, and some time later, depending on the conditions on ejection, he will land safely on the ground. Have a quick read here about the latest Mk16E seat being developed for use in JSF:
http://www.martin-baker.com/eject_mk16E.htm
The parachutes are constantly developed too by a company called IrvinGQ:
http://www.irvingq.co.uk/products/ees.asp
As well as the emergency escape system being there to save the life of the pilot, we in the research, development and testing world also want to make the whole sequence as safe as possible. If possible we want the aircrew to land following the ejection sequence in a fit state to go and fly again the next day. To aid this a lot of research is done in a number of areas including harness design, limb restraint, and even posture on ejection.
All systems go through a rigorous testing phase before they can be used in service - including live jumping of new parachute canopies, where there are a group of brave (crazy??) people who risk themselves to test these things.
Although these manufacturers do a lot of there own equipment testing, of course there is also independent testing and verification, as well as seperate research work done by other companies, such as QinetiQ (formerly DERA, DRA, RAE...):
http://www.qinetiq.com/
Hopefully some of that information is new / interesting to some people.