Damn...negative Gs much?
Fighter Canopy Question
- Thread starter BeRich
- Start date
Damn...negative Gs much?
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
The B-52 still has this setup for the bombadier and nav who sit downstairs.
I don't know if this has been implemented or not, but when I was at Brooks ten years ago, we were building an ejection seat with two big arms and a net that would spring up upon ejection and pull the occupant's limbs into the seat upon ejection. One common injury during ejection was dislocated shoulders or broken limbs from flailing around and hitting things on the way out or getting caught in the airstream and being jerked out of the socket, and this was a way to combat it. At the time, we were testing it on the rocket sleds at Holloman, so I don't know if it ever made it into production or not.
We also were working on sensors to variably fire the rockets in the seat depending on the weight of the occupant. I think the ejection seats were designed for someone weighing around 175 lbs, and once women were cleared for combat and began flying combat aircraft, there were problems with the rockets being too powerful and causing back compression issues during ejection. (This was also a problem among some of our allies who tended to be of smaller physical stature.)
We also were working on sensors to variably fire the rockets in the seat depending on the weight of the occupant. I think the ejection seats were designed for someone weighing around 175 lbs, and once women were cleared for combat and began flying combat aircraft, there were problems with the rockets being too powerful and causing back compression issues during ejection. (This was also a problem among some of our allies who tended to be of smaller physical stature.)
hook_dupin
Well-Known Member
Here's a scary thought for the fighter pilots of the future: while the envelope of 5th generation fighters is much greater than that of 4th gen, ejection seat limits have not greatly changed much.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
There will be ejection seats in the control van at Creech?
HuggyU2
Well-Known Member
Why not? I beats falling (3 feet) to your death.
This is no crap: The reasons flightsuits are mandatory when inside the Pred GCS is for protection from fire. Forget the fact that the emergency exit door is to the immediate right and behind the sensor operator, and if you don't the time to escape out that door in case of fire, you were dead anyways.
Want to know whats sick? You know those WWII bomber crew photos, where the crew is generally posing next to the nose of their B-17/24/25/26 next to the nose art in the background behind them? I'm waiting for Pred GCSs to get "nose art" the the side of the trailer, and for Pred crews to have crew photos in front of the GCS van next to the nose art. They already put a sihoulette of a Hellfire missile on the side of the GCS for every shot that particular GCS takes.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
LOL at the "UAV" love. I met an AF Reaper driver at the NKX airshow (no, not like that), who had formerly been an A-10 dude. He seemed pretty pumped up about it, though our conversation fissled after some quasi-cougers walked up, one with a stroller and baby + beer in the drink holder. As we were walking back from checking out the Raptor up close and personal (after the show), we saw him leaving with them.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
Believe it or not, most of the fighter buds I know who are doing RPAs actually like the work. They hate almost everything else about the job (mostly the quality of life in terms of days worked) and miss actually flying, but they have a lot of job satisfaction.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
I had to re-read this, because the first time I swear I thought you said that they're already doing this.
No, no, not yet (though who knows?). But the Hellfire sihoulette kill markings on the box, I've seen first hand.
hook_dupin
Well-Known Member
If it takes $0.25 in paint to temporarily fix some pretty heinous quality of life / returning to a manned aircraft issues that the RPA community faces, then I'm all for it.
I don't know if just a sticker will fix all the problems in the community. The decals aren't even for the crews, its the civilian GCS maintainers who do the sticker adhering. So someone is getting some satisfaction out of it.
BAMCIS
Well-Known Member
In the battle of Britain, Spitfire pilots used to bail out by opening the canopy, releasing the harness, and then inverting the aircraft. This effectively dropped them out of the cockpit and well clear of the aircraft. This won't work in a T-34C, the canopy doesn't open far enough for the parachute to clear it on the way out, so we would get stuck about a quarter of the way out of the cockpit and pinned by the airstream. Just in case anyone was wondering if you could do that in a T-34C. We have to dive towards the trailing edge of the wing and cross our fingers the horizontal stab doesn't hit us. Those ejection seat things sound great, can't wait to get one.
