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| WTF!!! (French Airforce FUBAR) |
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| SeanB:
I heard of one pilot being killed by a malfunctioning ejection seat, that did an uncommanded eject over the ocean. His body was recovered, but the plane never was, as it went down in about 6km of water, in a very rough sea area. I had actually met that pilot a few times, but at that time was more than a year out of that base. I never liked climbing into a cockpit with the seat still there, both because it is incredibly cramped for a tall person ( pilots tend to the short side, to fit the aircraft) and also because of those two yellow black handlkes, with the only thing keeping you safe being the 2 ball detent release pins. I still use one as a tool box latch, as the armourers always had plenty of used ones around. |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: Alphaprot on April 18, 2020, 01:22:12 pm --- Imagine a fighter pilot on the rear seat (aren't they used for targetting and controlling the aircraft's weapon system?) loses consciousness in mid-air in a combat situation. Plane gets problems and both pilots SHOULD immediately exit via their ejection seats. The conscious front-seated pilot engages his seat's handle and saves his life, but the other pilot won't survive as his seat won't autoactivate (but it should by design, as the article says). --- End quote --- Nope. When both seats are occupied, the ejection selector is set to "both" by the pilot. In that case, if EITHER pilot pulls his ejection handle the system blows the canopy, then the rear seat ejects first, then the front seat. If the canopy fails to jettison, then the seats are ejected through the canopy after a slight additonal delay. The rear seat has to go first, as the rocket motor from the front seat would fry the rear seat guy if he was still there. There is a "single" position on the ejection sequence selector so that the front seat guy can eject faster if there's nobody in the back seat. As for the center of gravity, the complete seat system with all the pyrotechnics, parachute, survival kit, oxygen and radio generally weighs more than the pilot. But then, a few missles and bombs weigh a lot more than that. Anyway, for rapid maneuvering, the control surfaces on the fighter jets are QUITE large, and can produce PLENTY of force to overcome a little change in CG. Note the F-15 that had a midair in Israel 20-some years ago, and was flown back to the base with one wing COMPLETELY sheared off! Jon Jon Jon |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: MK14 on April 18, 2020, 06:16:27 pm --- --- Quote from: paulca on April 18, 2020, 05:33:18 pm ---I can't find the videos now, but a female pilot of the F14 tomcat experienced an engine failure on approach to the carrier. Instinctively she opened the throttle to the remaining engine to avoid stall, abort and climb out. In the original Tomcat this was a coffin corner on the graphs. So close to stall on the final to a carrier an engine loss needed nearly full power from the other engine to not stall, but full power from the other engine induced a yaw moment so close to stall that it spun. Keeled over and headed straight to the water. The RIO in the back seat seen the situation go critical and pulled the handle, ejecting both pilot and RIO. --- End quote --- It seems to be this one: --- End quote --- Yes. The RIO (rear seat) goes first, then the front seat later, to spare the rear seat of the flame from the ejection rocket motor. By the time the sequence system fired the front seat, the plane was upside down, and she was fired straight down into the water at high speed. Jon |
| MK14:
--- Quote from: jmelson on April 19, 2020, 03:19:30 am ---Yes. The RIO (rear seat) goes first, then the front seat later, to spare the rear seat of the flame from the ejection rocket motor. By the time the sequence system fired the front seat, the plane was upside down, and she was fired straight down into the water at high speed. --- End quote --- Very sad incident. On the other hand, this is an amazingly good one (for the F15), video below: --- Quote from: jmelson on April 19, 2020, 03:15:44 am ---Note the F-15 that had a midair in Israel 20-some years ago, and was flown back to the base with one wing COMPLETELY sheared off! --- End quote --- |
| EEVblog:
--- Quote from: jogri on April 18, 2020, 11:28:59 am --- --- Quote from: MK14 on April 18, 2020, 10:27:31 am ---So, it was not that easy for the pilot to return to base. Details in video. --- End quote --- That's quite the understatement given that the pilot had to deal with: -a changed center of mass of his airplane (okay, we are talking about ~150kg on a 15 ton jet) -a massively changed airfoil: losing the canopy meant that the plane suddenly produced a metric sh*tton of drag, ruining the normal airflow and drastically reducing the lift the plane generated -a plane that is aerodynamically unstable under normal conditions and requires aid from a computer to be flown ->i don't think the computer has programs for a "the ejection sequence kinda worked/how about flying a cabriolet" situation, meaning that the pilot had to fly it with reduced help from the flight computer --- End quote --- Plus the hug mental situation knowing full well that his seat was supposed to eject too, and it could have done so at any instant. |
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