What are those huge slabs flying out there? Isn't the idea of that det cord to shatter the canopy into tiny non-head-removing bits?
As I understand it, the history of the escape system has been a battle among a whole mass of factors.
1 - Expanded pilot population. Enough bang to get the 95 per cent big pilot out of there = very fast acceleration for the 95 per cent small pilot = a lot of neck snap, especially with....
2 - Big helmet with horrible weight constraints.
3 - Difficult envelope corners, including zero airspeed, falling out of sky with high roll and/or pitch rate.
4 - One-piece canopy, so that the top can't be much less thick than bird-resistant front, that has to be blown apart (#3) not jettisoned.
F'rinstance, one ejection test blew a hole in the top of the helmet (A Bad Thing). Nobody told the helmet people that they had upgunned the det cord to sort out a canopy-fracturing issue.
Last edited by LowObservable; 19th Mar 2013 at 23:23.