V Bomber Emergency Escape Trials

[Krystal n chips]

Fascinating clip found by a friend on FB....however, it's the straight out of a Harry Enfield sketch commentary and inflection that is also entertaining....the opening statement in particular.

Escape Problems for Moving Crew Members - YouTube

You Tube

[megan]

One could be forgiven for thinking that the RAF considered the backseaters as throw away items, brave guys, should have gotten medals just for volunteering.

[Asturias56]

It has often been commented on that the Russians made great efforts to give all their crews a decent escape system - but in the UK it would have COST MONEY and so they were expendable

[Timelord]

Originally Posted by megan

One could be forgiven for thinking that the RAF considered the backseaters as throw away items, brave guys, should have gotten medals just for volunteering.

I don’t remember volunteering !

[bobward]

Doddy Hay mentions trials of a rear facing ejector seat,from a Valiant in his book 'The man in the hot seat'. I read this a very long time ago and it may well be long out of print.
That said, it does cover his work for Martin Baker in the 1960's, when a lot of live trials seat experiment went on, well be elfan got involved!

[Jhieminga]

Having watched the Youtube video, they did at least investigate options to improve the situation, or so it appears.

[Herod]

I'm led to believe that ejection seats were considered, having a sequence system such that the centre seat went first, then the others firing at an angle inwards. There was consideration, at least on the Victor, to have an escape capsule, a'la the F111. However, an analysis of the number of fatalities, projected forwards, made neither idea economically feasible. T'was ever thus.

[tubby linton]

Unable to play either clip unless I go to youtube(senior pilot has not fixed this). The lack of escape from a Vulcan became an issue in the crash at Heathrow when the rear crew all died but the two crew in the pilot seats escaped. It was concealed for many years that one of the rear crew was a fully qualified Vulcan pilot who had been replaced by a senior officer for the flight.

[Senior Pilot]

Originally Posted by tubby linton

Unable to play either clip unless I go to youtube(senior pilot has not fixed this).

Have you Cleared Cookies for this website? That may fix the issue, but I have sent a number of requests to have Tech look at and fix the problem and can only wait for a result.

[Bill Macgillivray]

Many years ago I had the privilige of being shown around a certain Russian three engined bomber. Sticking to the thread, the pilots had "normal" ejection seats and the rear crew member had a downward ejection seat. When I queried their flight profile I was told that it was low-level and probably lower than ours! No further comment!

[NRU74]

Anyone got any stats on how many rear crew survived from V Bombers.
I remember when I was on the OCU at Gaydon in '63 that the rear crew had got out of a Victor ?

[spekesoftly]

Originally Posted by NRU74

Anyone got any stats on how many rear crew survived from V Bombers ?

There were at least four accidents where all crew members escaped from a Vulcan:-

ASN Aircraft accident 24-JUL-1959 Avro Vulcan B.1 XA891

ASN Aircraft accident 16-JUL-1964 Avro Vulcan B.Mk 1A XA909

CRASH OF AVRO VULCAN XM610, CO DURHAM

RAF-lincolnshire.info :: 101 Squadron: Crash of XM600

[treadigraph]

Originally Posted by bobward

Doddy Hay mentions trials of a rear facing ejector seat,from a Valiant in his book 'The man in the hot seat'. I read this a very long time ago and it may well be long out of print.
That said, it does cover his work for Martin Baker in the 1960's, when a lot of live trials seat experiment went on, well be elfan got involved!

I just acquired a second hand copy of Doddy's book, what an excellent read it is.

[Jhieminga]

A trial rear seat ejection from a Valiant is shown in the clip above.

[Senior Pilot]

Originally Posted by tubby linton

Unable to play either clip unless I go to youtube(senior pilot has not fixed this).

Maybe anyone having this problem can post here please. I am only getting it on my iPad with the latest iOS 16.1 and nowhere else, is that the case for others here?

[DHfan]

I seem to recall it's nothing to do with PPrune but fussy browsers.

[kenparry]

Thankfully, I never went near the V-force. Can those who were there tell us whether any of these devices, especially the rotating seat, were ever brought into service?

[Timelord]

I haven’t watched all of the videos but in the Vulcan the outboard rear seats swivelled inwards, ie towards the door. They also had air inflated cushions to help lift you out of the seat under g.

[Pontius Navigator]

Without going into my books, while there were several crashes two were CFIT were all died. The Heathrow, Boscombe, Cottesmore and Malta accidents might have been survivable.