Ejection at Mach 2

I wonder if they had to use an especially large parachute to support his massive solid brass balls?


The photos reek of photoshop, though.
 
I'll go ahead and officially throw the BS flag on that.

Did a guy intentionally eject for a movie, maybe.

Did he do it at Mach 2, no way.
 
Shenanigans, I say! ... possibly.

If the aircraft -- with no canopy -- was powerful enough to accelerate through the transonic regime and up to Mach 2 (at probably around 30,000 ft)...

The stagnation temperature would be about 180°C hotter than ambient (so the warmth is plausible). A single finger stuck into the airflow would experience about 10-20 lbs of drag (no super human strength required). A whole, gloved hand would experience 350-450 lbs.

So a whole dude being ejected into the free stream would be lucky to only get a detached retina or some kind of hernia.

I don't see any reason why they would need to do the ejection at supersonic speeds for a movie sequence. It just makes it more dangerous for the crew and more complicated to film. They probably filmed it at much lower speeds and Slavic & urban legend took it from there.
 
K-36seat.gif
The Russians do have a great seat in the K-36D. It first came to light at Paris with the Mig-29 ejection and later crashes of the MiG and the SU-27 have all seen the K-36D used. The seat so impressed the US military that they bought a bunch of them for study at Wright Patt. The conclusion was that while most US seats were good 0-600KEAS the -36D was good from 0-755KEAS. It has some very interesting features that allow it to be used at very high speeds including stabilizer booms. Note also the blast deflector in front of the pilot and between his legs. That shields the pilot from the high mach winds. Note also how the harness locks just below the sternum and not across the lap.

Mach 2 for a movie? Probably not but the if you have the cash, the Russians will oblige. The cirque guy is in orbit after forking over $30+ mil.
 
One way to tell.... I flew with a pilot from Southwest Airlines (we did his tailwheel endorsement), whom has the record for the fastest ejection out of an F-15 of the east coast some years back. His backseater was killed. I believe they ejected at Mach 1.2 at night inverted. Long story short the Guinness Book of World Records has him listed as the fastest survivable ejection. He actually signed a poster of himself and gave it to our school. I can't for the life of me think of his name. He is a speaker at conferences for various organizations. I want to say his first name is Brian (could be wrong though as it has been over a year or so).

So unless things changed.......
 
In the book about the SR-71 attempting to launch the D-21 drone, the Blackbird broke up and the pilot, Bill Park was ejected along with the Ray Torick. Torick drowned in a water landing. Park surivived but did not fly again. Mach 3+.

I believe you are talking about Brian Udell which reports say was 'one of the fastest ejections' on record. http://www.ejectionsite.com/insaddle/insaddle.htm
 
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