What Happens When You Eject Out Of A Jet At 800 MPH

[Fishbone Jones]

I was one of the old time Safety Systems guys, before all the amalgamation crap went on. I can't recall an ejection going bad (there were lots). Most pilots realized you needed a safe ejection forward speed and endevoured to achieve that. At that time, that meant slowing your anchor down to a safe speed, or speeding it up to make the chute deploy ( before zero\ zero seats) on take off.

Goggle Martin-Baker if you want to witness the strides we've made in 40 years.

I taught the ejection procedure for T-Bird, VooDoo and a couple of others. To everyone that was going up, in the back seat. We pulled no punches about what to expect.

We also never lost anyone, even though ejections occured.

The Caterpillar Club gained many members while I was part of that trade.

 

[FoverF]

Some models of the famous Zvezda K-36 (now used by all Russian fighters) have a shock-wave generator that pops up between the pilot's legs if ejection is initiated above a certain speed, which protects the pilot from supersonic airflow. In addition to drogues and servo rockets to keep the seat stable at speed.

This is what they put in the MiG-31, the Tu-160, and was also was the leading contender for the F-22's ejection seat (until obvious political considerations took over). Probably the three applications in the world where an ejection is most likely to be supersonic.



The Russians have also employed other relatively simple methods in the past to support supersonic ejections.

 

[Rifleman62]

If you ejected from a B-58 Hustler, you died from the radiation of the bomb you dropped, especially if you did not hook up with a tanker after weapon away.

In the 50/60's, the USAF experimented with rocket sleds to develop safe ejection seats/acceptable speed parameters. Additionally balloon parachute jumps over 100,000 feet.  A Col Kittinger still holds the height record (opening speed near Mach 1). Several documentaries were made on these experiments.

 

[aesop081]

If you ejected from a B-58 Hustler, you died from the radiation of the bomb you dropped, especially if you did not hook up with a tanker after weapon away.

The B-58's ejection record says a bit different:

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/B-58_hustler.htm

 

[Rifleman62]

If you ejected from a B-58 Hustler, you died from the radiation of the bomb you dropped, especially if you did not hook up with a tanker after weapon away.

Wartime.

 

[aesop081]

Wartime.

Thankfully, no one has had to eject from a B-58 in wartime.

 

[a_majoor]

The main reason that encapsulated ejection seats were never adopted was the extra weight affected aircraft performance (not just the seat but the additional structure needed to support the extra mass during high speed, high "G" manouevres)

The other reason is that most air forces decided it was more practical to spend money developing "Zero-Zero" ejection seats that worked at virtually all speeds and altitudes. The Canadian CF-18 that crashed a few years ago during airshow workup training demonstrates the effectiveness of this seat; the video and stills show the pilot ejecting at very low altitude with the aircraft rolling over , yet the seat corrects for this and the pilot is carried to a safe altitude where the parachute will (did) work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4yMVM2Vxas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKNfrC0ALUQ (slide show from a different angle. Note the attitude of the aircraft when the pilot punched out)

 

[aesop081]

were never adopted

In fact, we have show in this discussion that they were adopted at one point in time, on operational aircraft. Furthermore, i can think of 3 aircraft designs that incorporated crew ejection capsules but those entire programs were either cancelled (B-1A, B-70) or it was never incorporated in the final in-service product (F4D Skyray).

"Zero-Zero" ejection seats

The discussion here is about ejecting at supersonic speeds where, as Supersonicmax has said, the latest seats are no safer.

The Canadian CF-18 that crashed a few years ago during airshow workup training

That aircraft was not flying at supersonic speed.

 

[a_majoor]

To my knowledge, the enclosed ejector seats and ejection pods were proposed and engineering mockups were made and even tested on prototype aircraft, but never adopted in the production service aircraft.

While I am aware of the discussion being about ejecting at supersonic speed, the reality is this happens so rarely that airforces throughout the world put their focus on alternatives like the Zero-Zero seats. Pilots who do have to eject at supersonic speeds are, as pointed out, going to be in a bad way, but the higher levels of risk are at lower speeds and altitudes..

 

[aesop081]

To my knowledge, the enclosed ejector seats and ejection pods were proposed and engineering mockups were made and even tested on prototype aircraft, but never adopted in the production service aircraft.

Your knowledge is incorrect.