Ejection Seats facts

While investigating facts about Ejection Seats In Fighter Planes and Ejection Seats Martin Baker, I found out little known, but curios details like:

To make an extra buck, Rod Serling of “The Twilight Zone“ tested parachutes and other experimental technologies for the Air Force. “In one instance, he earned $1,000 for testing a jet ejection seat that had killed the previous three testers.”

how ejection seats work?

Ejectees of a Martin Baker Ejection seat join the "Ejection Tie Club," and receive a pin and tie.

What is an ejection seats?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 38 of the best facts about Ejection Seats In Helicopters and Ejection Seats In Military Jets I managed to collect.

what planes have ejection seats?

If a pilot ejects above 16,400 feet, sensors in the seat will cause it to free-fall until the air is more breathable, after which the parachute will automatically deploy.
The Ka-50 helicopter has a ejection seat. Before the rocket in the seat deploys, the rotor blades are blown away by explosives in the rotor disc.
The Martin-Baker company is the World's largest ejection seat manufacturer, supplying seats for 93 air forces, World wide. They claim to have saved 7567 lives
Exactly 53 years ago today, the USA used a drugged black bear named "Yogi" to test the first fighter pilot ejection seat at supersonic speeds.
Pilots who have ejected from an aircraft in an emergency, using a Martin-Baker ejection seat, are awarded a free necktie from the company. There have been over 5800 recipients since 1957.
Some attack helicopters are equipped with egress systems (ejection seats). It uses a tractor rocket to extract the crew after explosive bolts jettison the rotors.
The Ejection Tie Club who’s members have all avoided certain death by being saved by Martin-Baker aircraft ejection seats
The B-52 Stratofortress has a unique egress system for its crew. Two of the six ejection seats actually deploy downward, out the bottom of the venerable U.S. Air Force bomber.
Boeing will sell surplus F-4 Phantom II Ejection Seats directly to you (with rocket motors removed)
Sedated black bears were used during testing of the B-58 Bomber ejection seat

ejection seats facts — What are the best facts about Ejection Seats?

Why don't planes have ejection seats?

You can easily fact check why don't helicopters have ejection seats by examining the linked well-known sources.

The North American X-15 ejection seat had deployable fins which were used until it reached a safe speed/altitude, where it could deploy its main parachute

Last year the crew of a B1 bomber experienced inflight faults so severe that they tried to eject...but the ejection seats didn't deploy so they just landed the aircraft instead. - source

Pilots who have safely ejected from an aircraft in a Martin Baker ejector seat qualify for membership of the Ejection Tie club - source

NASA once put ejection seats for the commander and pilot of the first four shuttle flights. They were later removed after studies showed that WWII pilots felt greif and regret after leaving their crew behind

The accidental fighter pilot. In 1966 a RAF Mechanic accidentally took off in a fighter jet while performing runway tests. The ejection seat was locked so he had to try to land the jet instead. - source

When were ejection seats invented?

The U.S. Air Force tested the first supersonic ejection seat on sedated bears

How do ejection seats work?

The Bremont MBI chronometer is a watch that is available only to pilots who have survived an ejection in a Martin-Baker ejection seat.

Two of the Soviet "Space Dogs" (Damka & Krasavka) survived a shuttle crash from over 214km into the atmosphere after their ejection seats failed (and then some)

The first helicopter with an ejection seat featured main rotors with explosive bolts to release the blades just before the seat is fired.

In Utah the US government used to launch monkeys off of a cliff with a parachute to test airplane ejection seats.

Interesting facts about ejection seats

The F-104 Starfighter ejection seat fired downwards through the floor, creating challenges during low altitude escape.

Using an ejection seat carries a high risk (29.5% in an official study) of spinal injury, any so used only when absolutely necessary to avoid imminent death

The US Air Force drugged a bear and ejected it from a jet at mach 2 to test an ejection seat in 1962.

Black Republican activist Ida B. Wells was ejected from a Train in 1884 for not giving up her paid for first class seat to a white man and went on to become one of the greatest black activists in American history that almost noone knows about.....

How do pilot ejection seats work?

Rod Serling was a paratrooper in WWII before being transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon (nicknamed "The Death Squad" for its high casualty rate). During college he tested parachutes for the Army for $50 a pop and $1000 to test an ejection seat. He quit a week before his wedding.

During the 1950's, the U.S. Air Force strapped chimpanzees to ejection seats to test the survivability of supersonic egress. All four of the test subjects died.

The Irish invented the Submarine, Beaufort scale, guided missiles, Radiotherapy, Reflector sights, Clofazimine, Ejection seats, Hypodermic needles, the Kelvin scale, the quaternions and much more.

Supersonic ejection seat engineers studied the ability of the human body to withstand G-forces by strapping sensors to football players and having them tackle each other.

The Russian version of the Space Shuttle, The Buran, had ejection seats, but only for 2 people.

Jim Hall, a parachute expert who was the first human to test the zero zero ejection seat, claimed he had been "kicked in the ass harder than that" when asked about how the ejection felt.

The f-111 along with other U.S. military aircrafts have entire crew cabin, or "cabin ejection" capsule's instead of seat's.

Automobile crash test dummies - invented by Samuel Anderson, who died aged 90 on this day (11 February) in 2005 - were developed to test aircraft ejection seats.

The first four shuttle flight had ejection seats, but they were removed afterward as they were too impractical. Because of this in case of emergency, the shuttle crew would have to glide the shuttle on autopilot, blew the hatch, extend a pole, then bail out one by one.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Ejection Seats. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Ejection Seats so important!