Ejection seats

[dook]

Lay on my back thinking about others who had damaged themselves!

newt,

I've seen you like that on a dining-in night mate !

[Dr Jekyll]

Originally Posted by India Four Two

dook,

I'm also 5' 11" and sitting thigh length is within spec, but when I sat in an F6, I couldn't see how I could eject with my knees intact. Were the seat rails inclined?

I was also impressed by how high up I was!

What was the maximum thigh length? Since I was too young, too blind, and lacked the aptitude to fly my favourite all time fighter it would be nice if I met at least one of the criteria.

[dook]

Thigh length varies with the aeroplane. They all vary.

Designers will usually work on the ninety-fifth percentile of human measurements.

Sitting in a particular aeroplane it often appears that you won't clear the instrument pane and/or windscreen rail.

I had this impression in the Lightning but flew it. Newt might tell you more since he threw one away.

He's about my height but nowadays bigger in girth.

[newt]

Actually Mate it was a Jaguar and I did not throw it away.......it tried to kill me! Just like you did at a dining in night lol!

[dook]

Need memory pill.

[binbrook]

The Mk 1C seat in the Canberra did have a cushion, filled with incompressible and supposedly potable water. It was still uncomfortable, and on long flights the water was known to freeze.

[Haraka]

The ergonomics of early British ejection sets was problematical.
Just one example: attachment points for upper body ( "Shoulder') restraints being low down on the back. Tightening these straps up resulted in pre-compression of the inter-vertebral discs,thus removing some of the shock absorption provided within the spinal column .
Another: with slightly loosened straps though , going for the top handle could lift the torso off the seat, so the seat was under way accelerating before hitting the base of the spine.
There were other issues..........

[PAXboy]

Originally Posted by newt

Actually Mate it was a Jaguar and I did not throw it away.......it tried to kill me!

In what way did this Jaguar take exception to your presence??

[dook]

In a different way to mine.

[sandiego89]

Bill Park was 51 when he pulled the handle on the Have Blue prototype- his 4th! ejection. He was inured, but likely not age related.

https://www.f-117a.com/HB1.html

I do wonder if 4 actual ejections (not testing related/on purpose) is a record? I know some late WWII Germans had multiples and a few test and fast jet drivers had multiples, including a few F-8 Crusader pilots with 3.

[NickB]

Not the oldest, but my friends' Dad was, I think for a while, the youngest to use a bang seat as a young Midshipman who had reason to get out of a JP pretty sharpish.... his event in the mid/late 60s was listed on the excellent 'ejection history' website that has now been taken down.

[jimjim1]

Wayback Machine

Originally Posted by NickB

the excellent 'ejection history' website that has now been taken down.

'Gone' but not yet forgotten.

The Wayback Machine seems to have archived the site - this is the usual case as far as I can see.

30 Oct 2014 - Just after site is stated to have been last updated
https://web.archive.org/web/20141030...istory.org.uk/

3 July 2014
​​​​https://web.archive.org/web/20140703...istory.org.uk/