

Ejection Seats - alanthonyc
http://steveblank.com/2010/05/24/ejection-seats/

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epochwolf
Fun practical joke, here's another.

<http://steveblank.com/2009/05/13/gravity-will-be-turned-off/>

~~~
CamperBob
_I typed 30 copies, and using the master key I went into every squadron
building bulletin board, and posted these orders from the base commander on
all 30._

Sounds like a good way to find out how a stockade works.

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barrkel
I wonder how many technicians were killed by accident by the ejection seats
versus how many pilots' lives were saved. If there are more accidents than
ejection saves, I wonder if it's calculated such that pilots are more willing
to take risks if they think they'll be helped out by the seats.

~~~
neurotech1
No pilot "wants" to eject. There is a high possibility of being injured,
usually to the head, neck & back, even with the modern Martin-Baker & BF
Goodrich ejections seats.

During a high-risk flight, the possibility of ejecting outside parameters is
quite high, such as the recent F-22 crash where the pilot got killed during a
high-speed ejection.

There have been pilots who eject once and ended their career due to injuries.

~~~
johnswamps
Right. Even if the physical damage isn't that bad, injuries such as a
concussion can end your career. The military has pretty strict rules about
this stuff.

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BoppreH

       “Yeah on these seats the ejection sequence automatically starts when it grabs your legs. The rocket fires in 10 seconds.”
    

10 seconds to start the ejection? Ah, come on, that would just eject the dead
body of the pilot from the plane wreck. You should have known better.

~~~
ulf
Actually a B-52 might normally fly in heights where even a 10-second straight
vertical fall should not be a problem

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H8K
I don't think it's the fall that matters. The problem would come when the
airplane begins to tumble. Rip the tail off a B-52, and I would expect it to
rapidly tumble and subsequently disintegrate with unpleasant consequences for
those inside. Furthermore, ejecting is probably more likely to succeed in
straight and level flight than from a tumbling aircraft. For both reasons, it
is desirable to eject quickly once it becomes necessary.

Additionally, a 10 second wait is unnecessary. We see from fighter ejector
seats that ejection can be done in just a few seconds. What can possibly be
gained by remaining once the seat is ready to eject?

~~~
anamax
[http://www.boeing.com/defense-
space/military/b52-strat/b52_5...](http://www.boeing.com/defense-
space/military/b52-strat/b52_50th/story3.htm)

It's a story about a b52 that lost its vertical stabilizer. It flew to the
nearest base and landed normally, six hours later at a different base because
of wind problems at the first base.

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staunch
It seems odd that there's no way to remove the rockets. You wouldn't do
maintenance on a loaded gun.

~~~
smallblacksun
You certainly can remove the rockets, it just takes a lot of time and effort
so isn't done for routine maintenance. Also, removing the rockets would
probably be at least as dangerous as working with them there.

~~~
staunch
That's a shame. Nuclear weapons can be quickly/safely loaded and removed but
the ejection seat rockets can't...

~~~
epochwolf
Ejection rockets seats don't need to be removed frequently. Nuclear weapons
need to drop the instant someone hits the trigger. So why would you complicate
the design of an ejection seat that needs to work under a wide variety of
conditions?

