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Old 19th Sep 2015, 13:54
  #18 (permalink)  
Judd
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
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The problem with all those LSA with nice big canopies is you have no hope of escaping if the aircraft over-turns. Worse still with any impact and the unlocking mechanism is bent and jams. In the Fifties, the USAF discovered this with sliding canopies that jammed on some of its fighters. Several pilots lost their lives when their aircraft caught fire after aborted take off's went off the end of the runway. Damage to the canopy rails prevented the pilots from getting out fast. In those days ejection seat were not zero/zero like now.

The USAF then installed canopy breaker tools in the cockpits of fighters (heavy handled short bladed knife) that enabled pilots to smash their way through the canopy and get out. The RAAF followed suit and installed the tool in the CT4, Sabres, PC9 and Maachi. Within a few months of these implements being fitted in the Sabre cockpit, it saved its first life when a Sabre over-ran into a rice paddy after engine failure and caught fire. The pilot could only open his canopy an inch when it jammed. H he hacked his way out through the canopy with the canopy breaker knife and lived to fly another day.


People flying an LSA that doesn't have a normal door like a Cessna, would be well advised to consider the consequences of a canopy jamming and take appropriate precautions such as carrying an implement to break through a canopy.
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