Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Thanks Kevin! That answered my question perfectly Very Happy

! I guess they didn't need the rockets since the seats go down and don't have to clear the tail. I guess you'd have to have a really good harness if you're going to get kicked down by a catapult only seat! That sounds like it could have some major implications for occupant injury in itself! Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather bail out that way than do it the way the tail gunner had to but it sounds like one hell of a ride!

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Ok guys, I finally found some stuff about the U Tapao B-52 crash. The plane had been damaged by about 3 SAM hits. None were direct enough to singlehandedly bring the plane down, but all caused extensive damage to the craft. The pilot nursed the jet back to Thailand, but was not allowed to land at U Tapao, becuase of the busy runways. They felt that the plane would disintegrate on the runway, because the plane was so heavily damaged. When the pilot powered back up to divert, the left 4 engines flamed out, possibly due to fuel loss in the port side tanks from the SAM hits. The plane then began to drop down, and to the left, and the tail gunner then bailed out. He was, unfortunately, the only survivor of the mishap. If the plane had been allowed to land at U Tapao, they might have been pinning an Air Force Cross on the pilot's chest shortly thereafter. As it was, however, due to the mission being more important than the men in some top brass, staff puke's eyes, about 4 or 5 men didn't make it out of that one. Yet one more thing from that damned war that we can be left to rant about I guess.

A toast to our fallen comrades...

Stories like that make me want to (censored) Evil or Very Mad

! IMHO, they should've at least given him the Air Force Cross posthumously. If they'd made it, I bet they would've said it was a wild ride, but they were just doing their job.

I'll join you in that toast...

Thanks for the great info! I definitely have a case against this guy that claims B-52s don't have ejection seats! On the seats that egress downward, is it necessary to propel them with something, or do they just "fall out" with gravity? It seems like you would get caught in the slipstream and slam back into the fuselage if the seats just dropped out.

Thanks again,
--The Battle Axe

BattleAx09, the earliest trials on downward seats used free-fall only. They were from a B-47 and were quite successful. Catapults are used on production seats though. In some cases there is an alternate ejection mode if the catapult fails by disengaging the catapult attach point (the catapult or ROCAT in most seats is also the locking mechanism that holds the seat in the aircraft.) This is always a backup mode but was available for sure on most of the F-104 downward seats (there were about 4 versions of the downward seats for the Starfighters, and were only used in about the first 30 aircraft.)

Kevin
The Ejection Site
ps check out the seat gallery on my site. I have photos of the B-52D pilot seat, and in the Menza collection a photo of his downward seat. I have more photos to add, but haven't had time yet.

The NAV and RNAV seats are not survivable at zero/zero so they are not certified for zero/zero. However, they CAN eject while on the ground. ie: zero/zero.

The sequence is initiated by a SINGLE pull of the ejection handle. Only the upward seats require more than a one-step ejection start sequence. (Raise armrests, rotate handle and squeeze handle trigger)

The handle performs two sequences, but it happens so fast that only one pull is needed.

1) The ejection control handle, located between the occupant’s legs, initiates a series of ballistic devices and mechanical linkages incorporated in the seats. Initial travel of the ejection control handle fires the arming initiator, which rotates the leg guards, stows the work table, locks the shoulder harness, and jettisons the hatch.

(KEY NOTE: The hatch falls to the ground, thanks to gravity, not forward motion, airstreams. The hatch then fires the catapult safety pin pull initiator [CSPPI] Travel distance for the hatch to fall and fire the initiator is around 7 inches (telescoping linkage), that initiator allows the catapult initiator to be fired, which thus allows the 2nd sequence to occur.)

2) "Further Travel" (not a second pull) of the ejection control handle fires the catapult to eject the seat.

AND OUT YOU GO, with no forward motion or height. All because of the single pull handle and a gravity separated hatch.

Now the upstairs seats can fire on the ground also.

Sit in the seat, raise armrests, rotate handle, hatch thruster releases the hatch (among other things). The person then stands in the seat and throws the hatch over the back (mimicking airstreams lifting hatch off), firing the CSPPI. The person then sits in the seat, squeezes the trigger and OUT YOU GO. Again, not survivable.

CourtPilot
6yrs B-52 Egress and a T.O. to back it up (36GA-1, not that anyone really cares right? Very Happy

)

Good info - courtpilot must be Kevin's twin brother??? Wink

courtpilot, thanks for all the info, man Very Happy

! I love detail and you gave me everything I was looking for and more Cool

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Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Ejection Seats in B-52