
What happens when you eject at 780mph (2010) - arnold_palmur
http://www.f-15e.info/joomla/stories/181-back-in-the-saddle
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scrumper
Great read, thank you.

A very lucky man, especially given that his crew mate bailed out before him,
at higher altitude, going slower. The fact that between deciding to bail and
pulling the handle took 4,000' is astonishing: 780mph is very, very fast.

~~~
arnold_palmur
Really puts into perspective (or doesn't) something like Columbia breaking up
at somewhere around 14,000mph.

~~~
mikeash
It was also at about 200,000ft at the time. There's not much air up there. I'd
bet that in terms of impact, 780MPH at 4,000ft is significantly worse.

~~~
arnold_palmur
That's an interesting thought - is 780mph at 4000ft worse or just different?
It's clear that the lower your altitude, the more air there will be to
"interact" with - however, even at an extremely high altitude (with virtually
no air), at those speeds I would imagine that there is absolutely 0% chance of
survival given all of the heat generated (among other things).

~~~
mikeash
You are surely correct about the heating, what with how it was melting and
burning through various hardware on the Shuttle at that point. Expose a human
to that and they won't last long, even if the aerodynamic stresses are
survivable.

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leoc
This probably helps to explain why aircraft design has flirted with full
escape capsules
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule)
in the past.

~~~
2510c39011c5
Yes, I was thinking about the same thing...

And I feel even a commercial airline could make a similar device a standard
configuration...that might make flying more expensive, but perhaps we could be
able to reduce the cost somehow when manufacturing in massive scale...

~~~
bdamm
Ejector pods a standard part in airlines? My mind boggles at the amount of
weight that would be added. Manufacturing scale might bring down the capital
cost, but it would never bring down the operational cost of lugging around all
that extra weight, not to mention the inspections and tests required to ensure
the devices are working as expected. Airline tickets would be 2x the cost, if
not more.

~~~
2510c39011c5
People were still willing to fly when the crude oil price was at $100+ a
barrel, although I am not sure if a well-designed and tested escape capsule is
more complicated than the plane it self...

I just feel that is do-able, and had we made a good one now, we could use it
for all the years to come -- and that could also be used in other travels or
in case of catastrophic event...

~~~
sopooneo
Mid-air accidents are a tiny fraction of plane crashes.

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pcunite
Very touching. He lost his friend during the ordeal.

[https://youtu.be/HecyxhXDepU](https://youtu.be/HecyxhXDepU)

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js2
Another great ejection story is [http://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-
storm/](http://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/)

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Cshelton
My fighter pilot fried has told me stories, he's said, "Ejecting is the last
thing you want to do, you'll come out of it a few inches shorter, if you
survived the 10% chance of dying from your neck hitting the canopy."

~~~
engi_nerd
To combat against that risk of hitting the canopy, most modern fighter
aircraft do a couple of neat things.

First, there is a linear shape charge embedded in the canopy. This is
detonated at the moment ejection is initiated. This charge completely shatters
the material. So instead of having a whole canopy flying about, the canopy is
retained and the pilot ejects through this shattered material. The charge is
supposed to shatter this such that the pieces are very small.

Ejection seats also have a couple of small posts at the top. The purpose of
these is to assist in punching through the shattered cockpit.

Ejection is still the last resort, and your friend accurately relates the
risks. But work is being done to make the process a little less risky.

~~~
Cshelton
Yeah, at the time I think they were flying training jets from the 80's haha.
I'm not sure of the numbers but the number of fighter pilots who die in
training is a real number...

Although, my friend also knows that his piloting days from inside the aircraft
are numbered. Manned fighter jets/bombers, etc. will be a thing of the past.

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lholden
This guy has certainly earned the definition of "badass". Holy crap.

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braindance
Alexander Konovalov, survived an ejection at Mach 2.6 from Mig 25
[http://www.flightgear.dk/mach26eject.htm](http://www.flightgear.dk/mach26eject.htm)

~~~
niccaluim
The dynamic pressure of going Mach 2.6 at 61,000 feet is equivalent to 450
knots at sea level—quite a bit less violent than what Udell endured,
shockwaves and temperature extremes notwithstanding.

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tim333
I wonder if he would have made it if he'd tried to pull out of the dive rather
than ejecting. I was trying to figure the numbers - I get he'd have to achieve
about 3g vertical deacceleration which I guess he could have got pulling the
stick back for say 10g?

~~~
Sanddancer
That's how a lot of pilots die in crashes. They think they can pull a plane
out of a hopeless dive in time to save it, and they end up cratering. It was
pitch black, he had no idea of the attitude of the plane, he was picking up
speed, and he was at the absolute minimum safe distance to eject. At that
point, it takes a cooler head to punch out than to try to save the plane.

~~~
elements
Yeah, based on pilot interviews I've watched where they discuss the ejection
decision process, this situation was a pretty clear-cut case of "definitely
eject immediately". What really impressed me was how quickly he was able to
realize there was a mismatch between the HUD data and the ambient sound in the
cockpit, consult a second set of instruments, realize what was going on, and
make the decision.

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pachydermic
Holy shit

~~~
HorizonXP
Indeed. That was a great read, and I said "Wow" out loud when I saw that he
flew again after 10 months.

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vishaldpatel
tl;dr - everything that can break will probably break. Everything else will
just get torn to shreds.

