Gannet underwater ejection seat.
 

Gentlemen I have just discovered this thread so please excuse me for responding to some older comments. Gannet Driver is partially correct about the AEW 3 underwater ejection seat.
In January 1966 the CO 849 invited me into his office. He said 'You have a girlfriend up in Scotland don't you?' I replied 'Yes'. He then said 'Would you like to spend a few days in Scotland?' Of course I said 'Yes', to which he said 'Good, you have just volunteered for the underwater ejection seat trials.'
To cut a long story short, I arrived at a submarine base on the West coast of Scotland a few days later. I was directed to a large hangar-shaped building with a water tank attached to the side. I later discovered that the wall attached to the hangar was actually glass and you could view into the tank. As I trudged through the snow I noticed a diver standing on the top of the water tank breaking the ice with a pick axe. I was issued with a diver's suit and briefed on the seat.
The seat was designed such that when the aircraft sank a barometric device allowed the side windows to implode at a set depth to fill the cockpit with water and equalise the pressure. An explosive charge blew off the canopy and fired the seat up the rails. It was obviously a reduced charge from the normal ejection seat. Once clear of the aircraft the mechanism released the seat harness, inflated the life jacket and released one side of the oxygen mask. An unconscious pilot would arrive on the surface able to breathe and float. I did two runs, a manual activation and an automatic, simulating unconscious, in the icy water. Both filmed from inside the hangar.
The system was subsequently approved, but without the release tube connected to the oxygen mask. An unconscious pilot would arrive on the surface with his oxygen mask on with the end of the oxygen hose in the water! To my knowledge at least one aircraft was fitted with the seat.
For my troubles I have a tie with the Martin Baker triangles on it, with a frogman between each symbol. An exclusive club. The girlfriend. Well, I was on the West coast and she was in Elgin so that was busted flush.

Great post Eagleone :ok:

Do you have any pics from your time as a Gannet pilot you'd care to share?

Thanks
Nick

I came across I am sure an ex Gannet Pilot Bob Thirde. A Scotsman who after GB Airways retired back to Scotland.

Gannet aew3
 

Thegypsy - Bob Thirde was with me on 849 in the 60s. Do you have a contact for him?

NickB - I have quite a few Gannet pictures, AEW and ASW aircraft. I will dig some out when I have time.

Great - thanks Eagleone

Gannet XL500
 

The gannet at Saint Athan has made good progress this year and is very nearly ready.....apart from the propellers which are not yet serviced.
We have not found anyone in the UK to do it so are hopefully using the prop firm in America which the Janet the Gannet team have used who should give us a quick turnaround once we can get them there, its a big load as we are sending then whole rather than dissembled. Once they are returned she is ready for an engine start and hopefully she will be airborne early next year, though I think that's what I though last Christmas time.


And yes, XL500 does have the underwater escape system installed though it will be non functional in the display aircraft


I will keep the thread informed once things become more definite.

Thanks for that update Mark - good to hear things are progressing.
I think I might have had a chat with you at CU Air Day a couple of years ago and I know the props were the problem then too, but sounds like you have a good plan in the place to address this.
Really looking forward to hearing the drone/whine of a double-mamba in the air again soon!

Sorry for the resurrection, but what a fabulous thread.

25 years ago I started a book on the Gannet, unfortunately it still remains a manuscript.

The pilots underwater escape seat system came about in the mid 1960s, and was fitted to remaining AEW.3s from the late '60s on.
I'm trying to remember the manufacture of the device, as they released a brochure on it called 'puffing them out' or similar, it was someone like Dowty.
An easy way to tell if the system was fitted was the two 'ejection seat' style warning triangles under the canopy, and what looks like an extra window just aft of the sliding hood. This latter feature was an implosion panel, which broke through at a pre-determined water pressure to flood the cockpit and equalise pressure before jettisoning the canopy and initiating the seat release - all by the magic of hydrostatics and compressed air.

Interesting to read the bit about ECM.6 XG832 accident, this was very local to where I came from and was still a fabled tail then. It was undertaking circuits at St Mawgan before ending up in Melba Pit, in the Clay works area.
I knew someone who saw the wreck the next day, and think he found a part of it which he had when I knew him.



Would love to hear first hand accounts and stories of the Gannet!