Some Flight Test aircraft - say the Concorde prototypes, had an escape system consisting of a lowerable chute to allow bailing out, rather hopefully below the intakes.
A lot of good people have been lost on Test Flights, and they were not all pilots; it has long since seemed to me that if one's trying 'what if ?' there ought to be an escape Plan B for all concerned, and yes I've been involved in a tiny way.
I knew a technician, fresh from survival training who was castigated for saying he'd rather have a life-raft compared to the equally heavy public chemical loo in an aircraft, ( I was all for chance of the raft rather than 'going' with a few onlookers ).
There is also the Flight Testing Jetstream incident, the Trident and so many others...
I realise escape systems may be said to incur an unrealistic design / weight penalty, but I reckon in the 21st Century it's worth thinking about a way of giving the people a sporting chance ?
Last edited by Double Zero; 9th Apr 2011 at 15:14.