Forum: F-16 News

I don't think the wind was a factor at all on the ground, it was the sheer force of the jettison and direction of the "push" that I think caused it to fly away from the aircraft.

I think in ground testing, engineers cant count on a wind of any kind on the ground but it the air, it is a bonus for them.

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Obviously not an egress guy either but with the ACES seats being zero/zero, it stands to reason that in the highly unlikely event of a ground ejection the canopy would have to blow clear of the jet's cockpit area for the seats to exit unimpeded. IIRC, the gadgets in the canopy that propel the it up and away are in the front portion of the rail. When they fire after the linkage in the back is blown, the canopy gets tossed rearward.

blain2 wrote:

Guys sorry for a lame question, but on the same topic, if you all recall the scene in TopGun where our two studs eject and goose ends up hitting the canopy at ejection, how likely is that to happen? I am sure it is a possibility but how likely or risky is that sort of a situation?

The incident in Top Gun was actually based on a real incident early in the F-14 program accoding to the movie bonus material (interview with Pete Pettigrew - the real "Viper" and former Top Gun instructor) and backed up by an article in Air Power magazine (Sept. 2006) by David Baranek who was one of the "Mig 28" crewmen. The real incident apparently resulted in a broken leg instead of a fatality.

The F-14 has such a large surface area that a "burble" of turbulence developes over the aircraft in a flat spin which can keep the canopy from leaving the vicinity of the aircraft for a few seconds. According to the above sources, you have to manually blow the canopy in a flat spin, wait a couple of seconds for it to get out of your way, then pull the ejection handles.

Unfortunately, the Tomcat is now something I won't get the chance to see fly again unless I get Iran to change its tune and be friendly enough to send theirs over here for airshows or maybe Dale Snodgrass will pull one outta the hat and get some into civvie hands for airshows...

Oh yeah, don't forget the "Top Gun movie - Jet wash/Flat Spin" thread, too Wink

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Someone jump in if necessary, but I think there was an access port on the starboard side of the canopy on both single and tandem seat jets that allowed the blunt section of a speed handle to be inserted to open the canopy lock lever, in case, if after a throttle quadrant inspection, to be opened after a canopy actuator has been burned up to the tune many $$,$$$.00 as it was lowered by an unsuspecting crew dog without leaving it in the opened position post an inspection!!! Bang Head

At MacDill in the 80's on alphas and bravos, this was a weekly exploit achieved by many an NCO and their assistant until a TCTO was issued against the inadvertant "forgetting" to raise the lock lever up??? Does anyone remember this???

In theory, the canopy is blasted aft whether it is on the ground or in the air. The airstream(wind) helps a lot when in the air. The "squids" are in fact strong enough to blast these heavy canopies aft. In theory the canopy is supposed to land on either of the wings. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to land on the left one but not 100% sure at the moment. The incident the every one remembers from Top Gun could not happen unless something in the ejection sequence went terribly wrong. For instance, if the DTA line didn't work or the "squids" didn't fire. However, if the "D" handle is pulled then the canopy will go first and once the canopy has reached a certain distance the lanyard that is attached to it will pull tight and start the seat ejection sequence. The lanyard is attached to certain component on the seat. With out that lanyard being pulled by the proper amount of force, the seat wont budge.

Yep...my thoughts on it too, additionally, since the F-16 is so small by comparison, I don't see this as an issue for it anyway, I dont think a flat spin is even possible on this aircraft (could be wrong though).

It (canopy) will clear the cockpit area to allow a safe ejection while on the ground (if required), I have seen it happen.

There are actually a squadron of F-16's down at Edwards that are designed to go in to a flat spin for training however, they are B models that have been upgraded to pretty much a blk 40. However, the ejection is still 100% possible and 100% safe.

Really...I did not know that...sounds like great training - thanks

Forum: F-16 News

Inadvertent Jettison of an F-16D Canopy