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Old 8th Jul 2011, 16:25
  #11 (permalink)  
Jig Peter
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Toulouse area, France
Age: 93
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@"Piece of cake"

In most ejection cases, the crews were properly trained - certainly those operating in the West Germany area, but also other "front line/cold war" areas (and even now); the aircraft were designed and tested for their operational function (during testing there could have been some ejections when things got hairy at the outer limits of various bits of the operating envelope). Some aircraft are a bit "edgier" than others (Lightning endurance, for example), but military pilots are trained to react appropriately, including ejecting ...
You seem to want a degree of safety that runs counter to the aircrew's business, which is ... to fight other aircraft, shoot off rockets at enemy tanks, drop bombs on enemy installations, and so on. Nasty, isn't it, but that's what combat aircraft are about ... And, to follow on LM's comment, bikrds are not uncommon on low-level operations - a hit from a biggish bird on your car's windscreen can cause the view to go all starry, and you're probably not doing more than 20% of an aircraft's speed . A bird that hits your car won't do more than dent it , but they makle biiig holes in aeroplanes, and strip the vital blading all through the engine.
Martin-Baker build lifesavers, remember.
Sorry poeple, Rant Mode OFF ...
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