Video: Ejection seat test

No, that's not a real person flying out of this rocket sled flying down the track at 600 mph. It's a mannequin test of a new ejection seat system for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. From BAE Systems:

The system has been tested to its limits, as a full scale front section of the aircraft, complete with ejection seat and mannequin was launched at speeds in excess of 600 mph down a test track.  More than 30 ejection seat tests have been completed in the UK, France and the USA.  


Witnessing the final test which took place at Martin Baker’s facility at Chalgrove Airfield in Oxfordshire, BAE Systems’ Test Manager Rick Whittaker commented “Ejecting from an aircraft like F-35 typically takes no more than three seconds from the time the ejection handle is pulled to the pilot being on a parachute. You can imagine how quickly everything happens.  Incredibly, during the tests up to 900,000 measurements were recorded every second and I am pleased to say the systems performed really well.”

"British Team Completes 600mph Ejection Tests for F-35 Aircraft"

• [dancentury]

  I’d hate to be sleeping on those tracks.

• [kpkpkp]

  What does this button do? Aiiieee!

• [Chris Spurgeon]

  I’m thinking this would also be a very good mechanism for testing the holding power of adult diapers.

• [Anonymous]

  I’m guessing the bird at :03 didn’t win the race?

• [absynth]

  Poor birdy. :(

  • [2k]

    oh.

• [echolocate chocolate]

  I’m not convinced of the practicality of this high speed rail.

• [hinten]

  The problem is that this test track does not twirl the cabin upside down and around and around and around.
  Going straight and shooting up? Easy.
  Going upside down and shooting downwards? Uncomfortable.

  • [TEKNA2007]

    The problem is that this test track does not twirl the cabin upside down and around and around and around.

    That’s true, although the seat guidance system will try to steer it upright and away from the ground. If you watch the video of that Canadian F-18 stall and crash from sometime in the last year (link please) you can see the pilot come out toward the side then turn up.

    A lot of pilots get messed up during ejection. Amazingly, many don’t!

  • [AlexG55]

    The rocket-sled isn’t the only way Martin-Baker test their seats- they also operate two out of only four airworthy Gloster Meteors (the first jet fighter outside Germany) left in the world as ejection-seat test aircraft.

• [Dolawat]

  The clicking sounds similar to a dangling camera lens cover, striking a camera repeatedly.

  Pilots have been injured trying to eject out of their craft, while flying at hundreds of miles per hour. Besides the shock of air exposure, they have to clear the tail fast enough, while avoiding shooting back into the canopy. Then the pilots may have to contend with water landings.

  In fiction, a whole cockpit can eject as one self-contained unit:

  http://www.macross2.net/m3/macross7/vf-11c/vf-11c-cockpitpod.gif

  Has such a thing ever been proposed for real aircraft?

  • [Simon Bradshaw]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule

    The F-111 and early prototypes of the B-1 both used full-cockpit ejection, whilst the B-58 and XB-70 prototypes had individual ejection capsules.

• [howaboutthisdangit]

  Bumper sticker seen on a crash test dummy’s car: “My Brother Is In The Air Force.”

• [Anonymous]

  Cool video, still doesn’t mean Canada should be wasting billions on these planes.

• [Anonymous]

  god I just love that sound

• [2k]

  The bird on the left at about 3 seconds gets a bit of a shock, I’ll wager.

• [Anonymous]

  What is with that clicking? Was someone using the camera for drum practice? It reminds me of the “Schisms” episode of TNG…
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schisms_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29

• [Anonymous]

  Next time tape up the lens cap. It’s dangling in the wind destroys the soundtrack.