The rocket catapults are two tube models with an internal catapult. mechanism to give some time for the seat to be clear prior to parachute deployment. Approximately 25% of all F-100As were lost in accidents. Occasionally, a satisfied user thanked the researchers at the Aero Medical Laboratory. I immediately reduced power and turned back toward the base. The Martin-Baker MK1 was developed by Bernard Ignatius (Benny) Lynch, B.E.M., a ground fitter for Martin-Baker Aircraft Co., Ltd., who tested it himself, ejecting from a test aircraft at 420 miles per hour (676 kilometers per hour) and 12,000 feet (3,658 meters). and broke it open. .. A related (A line from the-chord points at the wing root and tip gave a sweep of 24.) 17 August 1946: First Sergeant Lawrence Lambert, U.S. Army Air Forces, was the first person to eject from an aircraft in flight in the United States. Smith was happy to take the flight. This would allow for more rapid deployment of the parachute at low altitudes. hatch, then the separate trigger would be actuated by the pilot to fire the seat. had a lower coeficient of drag compared to Yeager in his pressure suit and thus fell faster than This tumbling was considered benificial as North American Aviation built 199 F-100A Super Sabres at its Inglewood, California, plant before production shifted to the F-100C fighter bomber variant. The inner wing had no dihedral, and the outer wing had 1 dihdreal. Advertising Notice Fortunately he hit the water very close to a fishing boat crewed by a former U.S. Navy rescue expert. Later production aircraft used a J57-P-39 engine. The rocket nozzles are unmasked as the tubes separate and the rocket efflux is
helped decellerate the seat/man package to a speed where the parachute deployment forces were . But it was quickly apparent that something was wrong: The flight controls were heavy, and then there was a hydraulic system failure that caused the Super Sabre pitch down into a dive. 
The airplane incorporated boundary layer control to delay the wing stalling in the area of the ailerons. Yeager The fighter, being used in tests of the Argus As 014 impulse jets for Fieseler Fi 103 missile development, had its usual HeS 8A turbojets removed, and was towed aloft from Rechlin, Germany by a pair of Bf 110C tugs in a heavy snow-shower. him. Contemporary news reports, published Wednesday, 20 April 1955, say that the accident took place yesterday and Tuesday, suggesting that the correct date is 19 April. Alongside the headrest on the right is a handle used for manually activating one of the severing Flying over Patterson Field at more than 300 miles per hour (483 kilometers per hour) at 6,000 feet (1,829 meters), Lambert fired the ejection seat. only one hand was used to initiate ejection. Due to the changes, the new seat was Fish Salmon cut the throttle, opened the speed brakes and began a descending turn to the left to reach a lower altitude. In the real world where the factors effecting this include- the In order to reduce parachute opening times for low altitude ejections, a gun deployed parachute made by Weber was incorporated. George F. Smith appears in this brief U.S. Air Force informational film: The North American Aviation F-100 Super Sabre was designed as a supersonic day fighter. test station here for a physical examination. It had first been run in October 1944. The canopy was above my headthe most beautiful sight Ive ever seeneven if the horizon was running directly through the middle of it, indicating that I was horizontal to the ground, which was fast approaching. In case of an ejection,
The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 was an all-metal, experimental two-place, twin engine, tailless flying wing airplane with retractable tricycle landing gear. Lambert was assigned to the Air Material Command Parachute Branch, Personal Equipment Laboratory. These changes were to give the seat greater vertical height, and a more stable launch. The next shock was in my groin as the chute fully deployed. On April 14, 1955, Salmon was flying the second XF-104 (53-7787) at 47,500 feet while wearing a T-1 suit, K-1 helmet, and strap-fastened boots. This parachute was also installed on some The aircraft wasdestroyed. Very informative post and interesting considerations. Excessive negative G, and trying to deploy the chute while 'inverted' is never going to end well. version was which the new version was named the Stabilization/Retardation-2 (S/R-2 or SR-2). The crafts height at the time it was abandoned was not given. In an attempt to give the F11F enough power to reach Mach 2, engineers had installed a General Electric J-79 enginethe same engine used in the F-104. To manually activate deployment, I grabbed the D-ring and threw it far from my chest. 
The rocket motor struck his helmet, which was being fed oxygen from the seat survival kit As usual in engineering design, any failures of the seat systems, irrelevent of their effect on If they were told that, it was just to make them feel better. I had been told that if you had time to think about the parachute deploying, that meant the lanyard that connected the seat to the parachute D-ring hadnt worked.
In order to The test aircraft was a modified Northrop P-61B-5-NO Black Widow night fighter, 42-39498, redesignated XP-61B. aircraft was in a flat spin, and the seat/man package began its separation with the man portion rotate the automatic lap belt to the unlock position. Martin-Baker design. Following the successful jump, blue-eyed, sandy-haired Sgt. One other point to mention in regard to the S/R-2 is Other manufacturing and design improvements primarily changed the appearance of the seat with little mechanical changes. The F-100 was armed with four M-39 20 mm autocannons, capable of firing at a rate of 1,500 rounds per minute. The ejection seat was placed in the gunners position, just behind and above the Black Widows pilot. The second prototype, 083-1002 (53-7787) was the armament test aircraft. The -104s were the only aircraft we had that would reach twice the speed of sound. The parachute canopy began to unfurl from my left side.Next came a tremendous shock on my shoulders as the chute deployed, snapping me around like a rag doll.Now I was plummeting head-first toward the desert. The XF-104 had a maximum speed of 1,324 miles per hour (2,131 kilometers per hour), a range of 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) and a service ceiling of 50,500 feet (15,392 meters). The primary improvement was the addition of a set of stirrups worn on the pilot's boots which were clipped into a set of cables on reels located under the seat pan. The canopy jettison system was also modified in concert with the delay charges to equipment on the crewman- the seat would tend to tumble. INYOKERN, Calif., April 20 (AP)Herman R. (Fish) Salmon, former racing pilot and now a top test pilot, bailed safely from one of the Air Forces hot new F104 jet fighters over the Mojave dessert[sic]Tuesday. This retract action causes The A.W.52 had a maximum speed at Sea Level of 500 miles per hour (805 kilometers per hour) and 480 miles per hour (772 meters) at 36,000 feet (10,973 meters). After rising 24 feet (7.3 meters), a static line fired a drogue gun, deploying a 24-inch (0.61 meter) drogue parachute to stabilize the seat. a gas operated retractor for the shoulder Vertical fins and rudders are attached at the wing tips. The automatic lap belt was also changed to a newer 19 April 1955: Lockheed test pilot Herman Richard (Fish) Salmon was flying the second prototype Lockheed XF-104 interceptor, 53-7787, conducting tests of the General Electric T171 Vulcan gun system. pyrotechnic pause to sever the foot stirrup lines, release the intertia reel shoulder harness, either to aerodynamic forces or voluntary/involuntary reactions, and the aerodynamic drag effecting The pilot, William C. Park, safely ejected. The total wing area was 1,314 square feet (122.1 square meters). The USAF The aircraft shuddered, the fire warning light came on, the engine ground to a stop, and the cockpit filled with smoke. Above & Beyond: The Unhappy Bottom Riding Club. Visually, the C-2 was very similar to the C-1, with a few notable differences. Rocket slag ignited the suit and the flames were fed by the oxygen. The force of the wind blast hitting him as he came out of the cockpit knocked him unconscious. Manage My Data He departed LAX in full afterburner and headed off shore, climbing to 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) over the Pacific Ocean to start the test sequence. After separation, Yeager was struck by the seat which At seat separation, the retract cables are severed by two . The seat
You are using an out of date browser. The seat required the pilot to wear metal spurs on the heels of his flight boots, thus earning an F-104 pilot the nickname Cowboy. The spurs had slotted receptacles that the pilot slipped over steel balls at the base of the seats foot rest. Luftwaffe, which used the F-104G as a low level attack plane. The S/R-2 was equipped with a fast deploying drogue chute which kept the seat from tumbling and of the F-104, Lockheed turned to Stanley Aviation Corp. for the development of the seat. available. The ejection seat pull ring was also changed to a 'D' shape (flat side down). and hold them there until seat separation. Lynch was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Kings 1948 New Year Honours. The parachute firing mechanism was activated during seat seperation and included an This was a particular problem to the German Fish Salmon was wearing a David Clark Co. T-1 capstan-type partial-pressure suit and International Latex Corporation (I.L.C. The static line also actuated the seats oxygen supply. Using all my remaining strength, I pulled the parachutes top shroud lines and stopped my pendulum swing almost directly under the canopy. The upper segment of the vertical fin was swept 49 43. during ejection, second it helped prevent flail type injuries of the crewman's legs in the windblast. With the shorter vertical fin than the YF-100A, the initial F-100As had an overall height of 13 feet, 4 inches (4.064 meters), 11 inches (27.9 centimeters) less than the YF-100A. The engine was 15 feet, 3.5 inches (4.661 meters) long, 3 feet, 5.0 inches (1.041 meters) in diameter, and weighed 4,390 pounds (1,991 kilograms). It means another ejection mechanism that must activate split seconds before the seat . A lanyard attached to the seat belt arms the parachute aneroid release system which deploys the parachute when the proper altitude is reached. Previous to this test, Lambert had made 58 parachute jumps.
manually place his feet into prior to ejection. Estimates are that he was subjected to a 40 Gdeceleration. stable lift to maximum trajectory. The concept was that of an air mail aircraft. Attached to the upper ends of the stowed leg guards is the arm restraint netting. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. that the emergency oxygen system was optimized for high altitude use. Lambert experienced 1214 Gs acceleration. Its maximum speed was 852 miles per hour (1,371 kilometers per hour) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters). I was one happy aviator, even though my flight suit was torn and covered with blood and sand, I had cracked several vertebrae in my lower back, an air police pickup truck almost ran over me, and a doctor on his first day at the base hospital and a pediatrician on his first rescue helicopter ride dropped me from the stretcher a couple of times.
The net is The drogue chute isn't directional, is it? harness to position the occupant prior to the catapult stroke. under the rigid seat survival kit to the front lip of the seat bucket. The partial-pressure garment also enclosed his head, with a fiberglass helmet and a clear visor or face plate providing for vision. One of the He 280 test pilots, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on 13 January 1942 after his control surfaces iced up and became inoperable. The first prototype Lockheed XF-104, 53-7786, was also destroyed, 11 July 1957, when the vertical fin was ripped off by uncontrollable flutter. well at to deploy the arm retraint netting, ballistic gas would cause the take up reels to retract the crewman's feet back into the foot rests This eliminated the requirement that the pilot manually retract his feet before pulling the seat handle. I reached down and pulled the D-ring on the front of the seat,which would fire the ejection cartridge. sub-contracted to other companies that were more experienced in the industry. headrest was beefed up a little and a canopy breaker was attached to it. These retractors had a He was spotted on the desert after a two-hour search by military planes and brought to the Naval ordinance [sic] test station here for a physical examination. the contemporary seats had a system where raising a guard would jettison the canopy or The catapult balistically A further pull on the ejection handle would release the upper catapult attach point, allowing the seat to fall free of the aircraft. You must log in or register to reply here. The Air Force Enlisted Heritage Institute, AFEHRI File 1910. The balls were anchored to cables on the seat that automatically pulled the pilots boots against the base of the seat so that when he ejected, he could safely clear the aircraft in one piece. catapult would fire to eject the pilot. The seat structure is based on a pair of angle iron like beams with a sheet metal headrest box. Many of 26 February 1955: Although it was his day off, North American Aviation production test pilot George Franklin Smith stopped by the office at Los Angeles Airport (today, known as Los Angeles International airport, or simply LAX, its international airport identifier). I was flying safety chase in an F-104A, even though the aircraft were still in test status. model. They initiated programs to Although the aircraft manufacturer was tasked with seat development, it was often This seat was fitted to the early prototypes and the first twenty-six F-104A aircraft. catapult. I think downwards firing ejector seats need to impart a much weaker thrust, not only because gravity is lending a hand but also because there is no tail to clear. The suit inflated immediately. The rotary actuator is a simple device that under gas pressure rotates rapidly to reel in an I was too high to touch down safely on the 15,000-foot main runway, but the dry lake bed provided miles of overrun. It included in its features a leg restraint system based on a set of ankle clamps. Another change that occurred over time was the change to My right arm was injured and my head struck a rock. A preliminary checkup indicated he was not injured. The other major change was of course to the XM10 rocket
The A.W.52 was powered by two Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene Mk.I engines. Reno Evening Gazette, Volume LXXIX, Number 21, Wednesday, 20 April 1955, Page 24 at Columns 57. The horizontal stabilizer was moved to the bottom of the fuselage to keep it out of the turbulence created by the wings at high angles of attack. The strap is routed behind the parachute, and then The seat was launched with a two cartridge ejection gun, with an initial velocity of 60 feet per second (18.3 meters per second). mechanisms for the pilot's legs or arms, merely a set of foot guards that the pilot had to Twenty-one had died in downward ejection seat accidents, including, in 1958, X-2 and X-15 test pilot Ivan Kincheloe. The loss of cooling oil melted the compressor bearings,which caused the compressor blades, rotating at 18,000 rpm, to shift, impacting the fixed stator blades and destroying the engine. Early models were powered by compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted with such a system was the Heinkel He 280 prototype jet-engined fighter in 1940. As the tubes inflated, the lacings pulled the fabric of the suit very tight and applied pressure to his body as a substitute for normal atmospheric pressure. His parachute opened automatically and he came down approximately one-half mile off Laguna Beach. Repeated attempts to restart the engine failed, and Salmon ejected at 15,000 feet. These two factors led Later seats incorporated a rotary actuator to facilitate seat separation.
The investigators estimated that to stretch the inside strands of that trapped loop one-sixteenth of an inch, just enough to fire the seat ejection cartridge, I had to have pulled hard enough to create a force of 450 pounds. including foot restraints, single action activation, arm restraints and leg guards. other seats of the vintage in terms of saves. The F-100 dived into the Pacific Ocean approximately -mile (0.4 kilometers) offshore between Dana Point and Laguna Beach. The XF-104 was 49 feet, 2 inches (14.986 meters) long with a wingspan of 21 feet, 11 inches (6.680 meters) and overall height of 13 feet, 6 inches (4.115 meters). Gen. USAF Ret. I thought: This really cant be happening to me! Automatic timers fired smaller cartridges to release Lambert from the seat, and to open the parachute. pushes the seat up the rails and as the tube nears the end of the catapult stroke, the internal
The reels were actuated by the pre-ejection thruster to pull the airman's feet back to the base of the seat pan. Cookie Policy This could be used to assist in removing an injured crewman, or for the crewman to rapidly There were two Lockheed XF-104 prototypes. He eventually made more than 30 ejections. crewman. At 7,875 feet (2,400 m), Schenk found he had no control, jettisoned his towline, and ejected. catapult for upward ejection. at a 45 degree angle over the crewman's left shoulder. He parachuted to safety and wasuninjured. of the C-2 seats, so the presence of the gun deployed parachute alone does not indicate the seat net is stowed in a pair of 'wings' on the sides of the seat bucket back. If the catapult failed to fire, the seat could be released with the aid of gravity by manually jettisoning the hatch cover, which would prepare the seat for gravity release. Rescue was effected [sic] by helicopter approximately two hour after escape. Salmon reported that the K-1 helmet was excellent for rugged parachute landings, and his only complaint was that the visor may impair vision at extreme altitudes.. The Knowing the procedure for placing the minimum balanced load on the engine compressor bearings, I had throttled back to 88 percent power. The capstans are pneumatic tubes surrounded by fabric lacings, running along the arms, torso and legs. The seat just needs to be pushed outside the aircraft, like a bomb or missile from an internal bay. Initial flight testing was performed with 083-1001 (USAF serial number 53-7786). give better grip from the pilot's hands and it would reduce the tendency to pull to one side if Additionally, the aircraft control stick is unlocked and pulled forward out of the pilot's ejection path by means of a spring mechanism, while the cabin pressure is dumped by a valve on the cockpit bulkhead. Initially intended as an improved F-86D and F-86E, it soon developed into an almost completely new airplane. XF-104 53-7787 had been built with an afterburning Wright J65-W-7 turbojet, rated at 7,800 pounds of thrust, and 10,200 pounds of thrust with afterburner. The seat fits into the cockpit via a set of rollers on the outer edge of the seat beams which
Later the seats were replaced with an upward firing seat, once capable catapults were These features allowed for the C-1 where the early C-2 used a slightly extended triangle with more of a rectangle base.
separate systems to make sure that the crewman is freed from the seat. had produced a catapult that was more suitable to upward ejection seats. Lancaster fearedtheaircraft woulddisintegrate. the leg guards would swivel forward to keep the thighs from spreading in the wind blast as The General Electric T171 Vulcan was a prototype 6-barrelled 20 mm Gatling Gun automatic cannon. I conducted my own investigation of these design decisions in late June 1959. It was rated at 9,700 pounds of thrust (43.148 kilonewtons) for takeoff, and 14,800 pounds (65.834 kilonewtons) with afterburner. Stanley then developed the C-1 ejection seat. The pilot manually released himself from the seat, and opened his parachute by pulling the rip cord. It was completely destroyed. Terms of Use the foot retracts to work more reliably, the handle to be grabbed easier, and if the canopy failed This seat was used successfully at altitude. The initial production version was designated M61. This version of the seat did not have any retract The A.W.52 had a empty weight of 19,662 pounds (9,055 kilograms) total weight of 32,700 pounds (14,832 kilograms). 26, Sunday, 18 August 1946, Society Section, Page 10, Columns 46. The K-1 helmet hard shell was cracked, but there was no injury to my head. In rare situations, this separation was not far enough
The two turbojet engines are in nacelles positioned almost entirely within the wing. managed to open the visor and shut off the flow of oxygen, but his face and hands were burned. But if the thrust is weak, ejecting upside down could cause the pilot to strike the fuselage due to the combined action of gravity and the airflow.
By the time he had reached 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) he had been unable to find a place on the desert floor to make an emergency landing. The foot restraint 'boxes' were made of formed sheet metal and firmly fixed to the seat bucket. guards. problem was seat separation and parachute deployment occuring at too great a speed. is an S/R-2. In a perfect allignment configuration, this would generate a Lambert expressed only one desire: To get around the biggest steak available. , Dayton Daily News, Vol. In normal use, the pilot would in his autobiography 'Yeager'. for takeoff. It could reach 760 miles per hour (1,223 kilometers) at Sea Level. He later said, I lived a thousand years in that minute, before the pilot, pulled the release. aneroid system to prevent the chute from deploying above 15000 feet. interface with the cockpit rails. Did the F-108 or F-12 hold any real promise as operational interceptors. low altitude such as takeoff and landing, a zero delay lanyard was attached by the It was already 5:30 p.m., and the colonel had to meet visiting Royal Air Force test pilots at the golf club.As soon as he left, Flight Lieutenant Jack Woodman called: The flight was on.He was evaluating a Grumman F11F-1F as a fighter for the Royal Canadian Air Force. The direction of the thrust also does not compress the spinal cord and the organs.
The Super Sabre had a 49 2 sweep to the leading edges of the wings and horizontal stabilizer. 69 of these were with the Mk1. I pulled again still nothing. The barrels were rotated at high speed by a hydraulic drive. This activated a series of events where the hatch would be jettisoned, rocket ignites. These seats served well in USAF service, but were still not considered suitable for The gun is capable of firing 6,000 rounds per minute. He was an 11-year veteran of the Air Corps. the pilot would don prior to entering the cockpit. length of cable in them and a spring tension reel to retract them. The other visual Salmon took off on the test flight from Palmdale, about 70 miles south of here. The planes top speed has been unofficially estimated at 1,200 m. p. h. Wreckage of the F104, one of two prototypes now being tested by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for the Air Force, was found several miles south of the China Lake area. The companys flight dispatcher told him that a brand-new F-100A-20-NA Super Sabre, serial number 53-1659, was sitting on the flight line and needed to be test flown before being turned over to the Air Force. In the case I'm thinking about the fact that also the canopy (or the cabin's roof) must be jettisoned. back against the seat structure and hopefully straighten his spinal column before the G load The parachute (BA-18 and -22) system of the C-2 included a lanyard activated timer The Nene was considerably larger than the Derwent and produced nearly double the thrust. Salmon, 41, was on a routine test flight when he hit the silk. The chute includes an integral drogue gun which fires a slug out -Simple/More reliable? (Both had high- and low-pressure stages.) Smith was unable to regain control of the F-100. The 'C' seat was a improved version of the 'B' seat, installed in the next fifteen aircraft of the F-104A production line. Inflating air bladders pushed his helmet high on his head. The cockpit was filled with dust, fiberglass insulation and other debris. At 35,000 feet, 65 miles west of Edwards,Woodman and I had reached 1.87Mach when my engine developed excessive vibration.A glance at the instrument panel showed I was losing oil pressurea recurring problem with the early J-79s. The Super Sabre was the first U.S. Air Force fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight. This sequence used a ballistic thruster under the seat to rotate the thigh guards up to the front position, tighten the pelvic restraint straps, close the ankle clamps by releasing a pin restraining them, lock the inertia reel. a rough triangle of webbing which is also attached to the seat bucket behind the parachute area. In the C-1, The pilot chute streamed between the seat and my body, pulling the parachute out. Both were single-seat, single-engine supersonic interceptors.
provide a faster egress from the aircraft.
The J57 was a two-spool axial flow turbojet which had a 16-stage compressor, and a 3-stage turbine. At 250 knots (288 miles per hour/463 kilometers per hour) the ejection seat fired Salmon out of the bottom of the cockpit. to jettison, to eject through the glass. The ground was racing toward me, and before I could get turned around to face downwind, I hit the ground rotating. A preliminary checkup indicated he was not injured. I had just returned to the Mojave Desert from a couple of weeks leave on the East Coast and stopped by Test Operations to check on the status of the Republic F-105 that I was flying in a stability and control test program.My boss, Lieutenant Colonel C. E. Bud Anderson, asked if I would stand by for a safety chase flight he was scheduled to flyit had been delayed all day and probably wouldnt go. Lockheed to produce a new upward firing version of the seat. egress the aircraft on the ground. A 37 mm cartridge fired within a 38 inch (0.97 meter) long gun barrel launched the seat from the airplane at approximately 60 feet per second (18.3 meters per second). The foot rests were That would likely just delay the inevitable. From the fuselage to just outboard of the engines, the leading edges were swept to 17 34. .The first ejection seats were developed independently during World War II by Heinkel and SAAB. The prototype XF-104 impacted the desert approximately 73 miles (117 kilometers) east-northeast of Edwards Air Force Base. Fish reported, I landed in a field of rocks ranging from one foot to five feet in diameter. Less stressful on internal organs and spinal cord: as a consequence of the first point, you don't need a very powerful and sudden thrust to leave the cabin. The F-100A had an empty weight of 18,135 pounds (8,226 kilograms), and gross weight of 28,899 pounds (13,108 kilograms). Seat height actuation is achievied by movement of the whole directed aft and downwards such that the thrust is upwards and forward thru the nominal center