Vulcan rear crew parachute pack

[red284]

I am a member of a small aviation museum and trying to locate some equipment for a Vulcan rear crew swivel seat fitted with the assisted escape system, that we have on display. Its a bit of a long shot but can any of you ex crew shed any light on this equipment. We have the parachute harness but need to locate the parachute back pack, back pad and survival equipment container but we can find no information on part numbers or store ref numbers to aid our search? Detailed photos are also hard to find and the one we have shows what appears to be a seat cushion on the base. Would this be covering a survival/ dingy pack and if so what type? It would also be interesting to know how the system worked.. Any information would be much appreciated.

[50+Ray]

The survival pack under the seat cushion did indeed contain the dinghy + standard goodies. The assistor cushion inflated to assist the aged occupant to stand up out of the seat and head for the door. Newark museum does not have the parachute packs in situ, but may have the info you need when Covid permits re-opening.

[Barksdale Boy]

Aged? ... Head for?

[Timelord]

The parachute and dinghy pack lived in the seat. When you arrived you strapped into the parachute harness,which was attached to the dinghy. The parachute pack only being attached to the seat by bungees. Only a lap strap attached you to the aircraft. If you got out of the seat whilst airborne you could choose to keep the parachute on (low level) or not. The connector that attached you to the oxygen and intercom also contained a static line to initiate the parachute deployment plus a barostat for high level abandonment.

If you needed to jump out the Radar and AEO seats swivelled inwards. Under any g it would be very hard to stand up so an air bottle inflated the cushion to help you. Then down to the door. Pull back the lever to blow the door open and out you go. Or possibly not as one crew found out near Spillsby

[red284]

While doing some research today I found out that our seat is actually from a Victor. I would assume that the equipment for both types of seat are the same or similar? Can anyone remember if the survival equipment container was fabric or the fibreglass box type?

[50+Ray]

Fabric. A friend who got his Captaincy at a similar time to me, age late twenties, flew with a rear crew who had a combined age of over 150!

[BEagle]

50+Ray, they would have been considered sprightly youngsters on 27 (boat spotting) Sqn at Scampton in the mid '70s!

[red284]

50+Ray
Can you remember if the survival equipment container was covered by a cushion and if so was it an orange coloured fabric or the yellow lambs wool like that fitted to some early ejection seats? Knowing exactly what I am looking for will really help a lot.

[Timelord]

I think 50+ Ray sat on one of Martin Baker’s finest. We trolls down the back sat directly on the seat survival pack which was a sort of dun coloured canvas.

[Fonsini]

If you needed to jump out the Radar and AEO seats swivelled inwards. Under any g it would be very hard to stand up so an air bottle inflated the cushion to help you. Then down to the door. Pull back the lever to blow the door open and out you go. Or possibly not as one crew found out near Spillsby

What went wrong at Spillsby ?

[50+Ray]

The Spilsby aircraft caught fire after a RAT/AAPP drill went rogue. Nothing the crew could do about that, but the rear crew evacuation was protracted and awkward. All survived, but it brought to mind the comment from one of the more mature groundschool pilot instructors - 'I can never remember any of my rear crews asking for an extra escape trainer session'.

[Timelord]

Actually, the Spilsby abandonment started to go wrong in the escape trainer. The door was opened p
by pulling back on a lever to the right of it. Normal operation by gravity was to pull it rearward to the vertical. For airborne abandonment rocking the lever outboard and pulling it all the way rearward supplied high pressure gas to the jacks and blew it open. In the escape trainer the gate had worn away so no rocking outboard wasn’t needed.
In the Spilsby incident the Nav Radar went to the door and pulled back the lever but did not rock outboard and blow the door open. As a result it dropped a few inches and stayed there. The Radar could see the rear of the aircraft burning through the gap! He moved forward and tried to kick it down. The plotter was watching all this and he had an electrical switch to blow the door open which he operated. As a result the door opened under the Radar and the vertical rather than horizontal pull on his connector meant it did not disconnect, leaving him helpless half way out of the door. The AEO exited past him!
The plotter pulled him back in, disconnected his PEC and pushed him out before abandoning himself.
I never understood why the plotter never got a medal

There, that’s killed a few minutes of lockdown!

[Timelord]

PS, all references to forward/backward/ left / right relative to rearward facing Crew!

[Barksdale Boy]

Thanks, Timelord. I've never seen Spilsby described in as much detail before. Fascinating.

[Fonsini]

Thanks for the explanation. I would imagine the reunion with the AEO in the bar that night was a bit awkward.