VIDEO: MB Musickal Chair Lifting
 

Martin-Baker ejection seats Jul 1, 2014

A worrying difference in performance between the front and rear seat given the near-identical conditions.

Good that,really shows how it chucks the pilots out both directions as well.

Great invention - really enjoyed my tour as a fast-jet base OC Armament which in those days included responsibility for an Ejection Seat Bay doing 6-monthly maintenance. I was even able to view them being used successfully from my office window in the Phantom era when runway departures across the bondhu due to nose-wheel steering faults were a regular occurrence. No dissatisfied customers thankfully.

More videos available to view at the M-B site: http://www.martin-baker.com/ejection-media#prettyPhoto

and on their You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/martinbakeraircraft/videos

Do the manufactures still make live tests? Bernard Lynch of M-B made a total of 31 test ejections, presumably all from the Meteor test bed. Does Bernard also hold the record for the most ejections? Brave man.

B A

I don't recall exactly when they stopped, but live testing of seats is no longer carried out. The variety of test equipment and associated telemetry is a far better indicator of seat performance and generic effects on the fragile user.

M-B have a couple of sites for manufacture/assembly and testing of seats: Langford Lodge in NI has a rocket sledge/rail test track; Chalgrove in Oxon has a number of static test rigs, and they also conduct drop tests from helicopters, and "live" ejections of a dummy from the back seat of their two Meteors (at least they had two when I last carried out a CAA aerodrome inspection in 2008). Again, all these activities are monitored elctronically and filmed from many angles.

The company UK HQ is at Denham, where I think they might also have a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility.

Mister B

Just This Once.

Looks normal to me. Heaviest spec dummy in the front, lightest ditto in the back. Normal test procedure to show acceptable perf over the crew weight range.