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Old 11th Jul 2015, 05:32
  #76 (permalink)  
SAMPUBLIUS
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Washstate
Age: 79
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RE ESCAPE MODULES

'
The whole cockpit flies up and away from the unrecoverable aircraft.
Yep - good theory but NOT easy to do. How many know that then B1 bomber was initially designed and flown with a crew escape module. And it was tested on a supersonic sled, air dropped, etc> I wuz working For Rockwell at the time on that program. And very much involved in the manufacturing- assembly area as part of tooling. The total complexity involved re quick auto disconnect of all controls, the deployment of multiple parachutes, the provisions for landing on hard ground or in the water- upright and being aerodynamically stable plus altitude- oxygen provisions, etc even where cost was NOT an issue cannot be simply described.

And despite best attempts and extensive quality control issues- it was a failure. One test pilot was killed during initial testing when things went barf and the parachutes did not properly deploy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_B-1_Lancer

Rockwell's design featured a number of features common to 1960s U.S. designs. Among these was the use of a "crew capsule" that ejected as a unit during emergencies, which was introduced to improve survivability in the case of an ejection at high speed.
  • On 29 August 1984, B-1A (AF Ser. No. 74-0159) stalled and crashed while performing minimum control speed tests at low altitude. The crew used the escape capsule to leave the bomber, but the parachutes deployed improperly, causing the capsule to hit nose down. The impact killed the B-1's pilot, Rockwell test pilot Doug Benefield, and seriously injured two other crew members.[157][158]
I doubt any civilian large commerical aircraft could afford the cost..
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