Helicopter ejection seats

[Lu Zuckerman]

How to avoid officer burgers.

One of the Cheyenne test birds had a downward firing ejector seat in the gunners position. During some tests the pilot operated the helicopter from the front seat. The seat I believe was taken from an Air Force B-47

[Dave_Jackson]

Why couldn't there be a system that ejected the blades and then deployed a small parachute from the top of the helicopter? This smaller chute would assure that the craft remained upright and that the vertical speed at ground contact was within the limitations of the seats.

[jimgriff]

AC

Here's the gen on civvy ejection seats:

http://www.ejectorseats.co.uk/seat-regs.html

or

http://www.ejectorseats.co.uk/rules.html

Hope this helps?

JG

[Jcooper]

Dave, I was thinking the same thing as you. I just looked at the oh-58 and thought why not replace the bulky observation equipment with a smaller parachute?

[wish2bflying]

I've been wondering about this also - the Cirrus has a parachute that can bring the a/c safely to earth in a catastrophic failure situation, why not for helicopters?

I know I'd love something like that if for whatever reason I found myself in "stone" configuration. Seems like a no-brainer for the manufacturers to come up with.

Imagine what it would do to insurance premiums! Surely this is a Good Thing (TM)?

--
Michael.

[RDRickster]

The concept of parachutes for helicopters was previously discussed here (click link). Personally, I put my hat in the "don't want a parachute on my helicopter" camp. I think you create too many single points of failure with such a complicated system, and it may create more problems than it is worth. Also, there would be an enormous expense in terms of development, testing, certification, and implementation (not to mention weight and performance penalties). Autorotations, autorotations, autorotations, autorotations, autorotations... the more your practice, the better your chances are. In my opinion, it is an unreasonable expectation to eliminate every risk factor by dumping more systems that require more maintenance with smaller margins for error.

[Dave_Jackson]

Alternatives

OK. Forget the parachute.

How about producing stronger blades and rotor hubs etc. from some of the weight savings that result from the new lightweight materials?

And/Or, a rotor governor that would only start lowering blade pitch if sensors detected any extreme loading on the rotor, which was causing a component to approch its ultimate strength.

[wish2bflying]

When I said "stone" configuration, I meant exactly that - catastrophic failure of the rotor system in some way that makes autorotation an impossibility. I believe a parachute would cause far more damage on landing than a well-executed autorotation, but if it slows the machine down enough for the occupants to survive the landing, then it sounds good to me.

--
Michael.