Forum: Technology

Pumpkin, the infamous 'lawn dart' photo you linked in your initial post is the one. When I first saw it in Aviation Week I thought the second boom was behind the first, but the angle was wrong. I have later seen a high quality slide of the photo and it is pretty clear that the second boom failed to deploy. Later on I received second or third hand confirmation that representatives of Zvezda/IBP did admit it failed. Since my source wouldn't commit on the record, I can't prove it, but after reviewing every print and scan of that photo I have ever seen I see no evidence that boom deployed.

At high speed this would induce significant yaw, which would have negated the chest protector and would have put the pilot's limbs at risk. At this speed the effect would have been negligable.

Kevin
The Ejection Site

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Don't mean to get off-topic but referencing the F-4 ejection clip, there's an almost 3 second delay between ejections. In the F-4 did you have to punch individually or was there a selectable mode (like in the Viper Sedan) where one handle ejects both crew? Question

LinkF-16SimDude, As with the family models of the -16 there is a selector. In this case they must have had it in 'individual' as opposed to the dual mode. In individual the aft seater can eject just himself. The front seater may have been hoping the nose would fall thru, but it didn't take long to realize it wasn't gonna happen with enough airspeed.

Kevin
The Ejection Site
(glad someone looked at the Phantom clip Wink

)

Quote:

(glad someone looked at the Phantom clip )

I looked at it, but wasn't too popular here in St Louis (McBoeing) Embarassed

Forum Veteran Joined: Nov 07, 2003 - 09:12 PM Posts: 901

kmceject wrote:

(glad someone looked at the Phantom clip)

kmceject, to be fair to us, we all did! Wink

Back to the 1989 Mig-29. If that is the photo, I am afraid I am not able to make up anything decent in that resolution Sad

. Another photo here low res still.

cheers,

Pumpkin, actually I figured most people had looked, but was surprised at the lack of comments.

That photo is a view I hadn't seen before, but it is of such low res that it is of little help. The only thing I can say is that you should look at what it doesn't show. The booms extend out at about a 15 degree spread as I recall. The photo should show a boom off to one side of the seat or the other depending on the angle, if the photo was taken looking straight towards one of the booms, which is what I suspect. Look at the photo on <a href="http://www.ejectionsite.com/k36seat.htm" target="_top">this page</a> from my site. Note the small drogues on the ends of the booms. These drogues help ensure the booms extend fully. They also make the ends of the booms more visible in photos.

Kevin
The Ejection Site
habu2, The Phantom mishap might not have been popular there, sorry 'bout that, but it is a piece of history...

Forum Veteran Joined: Nov 07, 2003 - 09:12 PM Posts: 901

Pardon me, for the lack of enthusiasm, kmceject Razz

. I guess I was pretty focused on the egress of the F-4 pilots. But the camera man was more interested on the Phantom.

The referred site belongs to you?! I came across the informative site while surfing for egress system materials. Pretty cool! Nice work. Wink

I guess it is undisputable, one of the boom has failed to deploy during the 1989 incident. It is a shame I don't get to see it in the photo Confused

. But I am pretty impressed for the fact that, the pilot walked away from the crash with only a twisted ankle, even when the K-36 failed to performed 100% as promised on that ill-fated day.

cheers,

PS: didn't know the K-36 was tested on the Viper forebody. Neat!

I don't know if I have told this story before on this site, but in any event here it is (again?)

In 1989 I worked for a tiny part of Hughes. Hughes had a booth at the '89 Paris Air Show and they wanted to show off their new Thermal Imaging System (TIS). The TIS guys were monkeying around, pointing the TIS at all the women who were walking by and watching the, umm, hot spots... A friend of mine was in charge of various aspects of setting up the booth and said "hey guys, you can't show that in the booth - why don't you point it at that MiG-29 flying overhead?" So the TIS monkeys redirected the TIS to the Mig and - you guessed it - they all watched in amazement as the MiG keeled over and pranged into the infield. All the TIS video was being recorded so, upon reviewing the footage, they were able to tell one of the engine (exhausts) went cold seconds before the crash, helping to determine the cause/support the theory that the (right? can't remember) engine had FOD'd and quit. Some of you may have seen IR stills from this video.

Kvotchur came to the Dayton Air Show the next year (1990), that was where I met him.

It was indeed the right engine. I'm no aerodynamacist but lookin' at a slo-mo of it I'd say either the FOD door closed after the engine died (the tape showed the upper inlet doors open) and it caused so much drag on the right side the it caused the right roll, or the loss of thrust from the right engine caused the right wing to stall which rolled it right...and the rest is history.

Last edited by habu2 on Jun 02, 2004 - 11:53 PM; edited 1 time in total

He was already near stall speed (doing a slow pass) and the asymmetric thrust rolled/yawed the aircraft to the right when the right engine failed. In the TIS video I mentioned you could see hot parts flying out the right tailpipe then the right exhaust (plume) went cold. The ejection seat plume in IR was interesting too.

Forum Veteran Joined: Nov 07, 2003 - 09:12 PM Posts: 901

habu2, No, I don't remember I have read the story before here. Thanks for sharing....I don't suppose this TIS video is anywhere available on the net...or it does Cool

?

I doubt it - it was held pretty closely back then because it showed the capability/resolution of the TIS. A few stills showed up in AvWeek IIRC...

Forum Veteran Joined: Nov 07, 2003 - 09:12 PM Posts: 901

habu2 wrote:

I doubt it - it was held pretty closely back then because it showed the capability/resolution of the TIS. A few stills showed up in AvWeek IIRC...

I was afraid that is the case. But that was 1989 and it is 2004 now Sad

.

Great topic guys.

The Russians make great seats for their jets, records show it.

Ciao

Hey guys check out this link, it has got some ejection seat stuff on it.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread72567/pg1

Here is another link to a video of a SU-27 crashing on the ground,but the pilot ejects out of a fireball.
http://brazd.ru/video/c0002/v000260.mpg

Now thats some good seats. If the video does not work, try back some time later, it took me a while to get it. But the video is great. (right click,and save)

Forum: Technology

Russian Egress System (K-36)