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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0010.PDF
10 FLIGHT EJECTION RESEARCH —in U.S.A.: High-speed Tests with Rocket -propelled Sled THE experience of George Smith, North American testpilot, who survived an ejection at supersonic speedand low altitude, though not without considerable injury [Flight, December 2nd, 1955] has focused officialattention in America on the problems of providing adequate protection for escape from supersonic aircraft. Concurrently,also, there have been programmes of research into methods of allowing ejection at ground level and low speed, andfor ejection in the same conditions from V.T.O. aircraft. In America it is not uncommon for the manufacturer of theaircraft to produce the ejector seat as well. For a wide variety of purposes, considerable use has beenmade of rocket-propelled sleds capable of attaining speeds up to, and even in excess of, Mach 1, and these have nowbeen brought into use for ejector-seat research. Above is shown a Convair F-102 cockpit mock-up with whichejection trials have been made. Boosted by ten Jato units, the sled reaches the required speed in a very short distance.Four frames (left) from a high-speed cine-camera record of a ground-level ejection show the dummy, clothed in apartial-pressure suit, being hurled clear after the hood has been jettisoned. The fourth frame shows the stripedparachute fully open, and the dummy descending vertically, close to the tower which can be seen in the background ofthe picture above. No details are given of the type of seat used, but it appears to have no face blind. The constantposition of the dummy's legs seems to indicate, however, that some form of leg-restraint is fitted.The lower series of pictures, again from a high speed camera record, show an experimentwhich was carried out to assess the forces imposed after ejection on adummy—which in this instance had been so constructed that its characteris-tics of size, shape and weight matched those of George Smith. Here, of course,there was neither leg-restraint nor face blind, and the "pilot" was ejected in avery poor position. The sled was at the time travelling at a speed equivalent tothat of the original ejection, i.e., between 700 m.p.h. and 750 m.p.h. It appearsthat an observer wearing the latest pro- tective helmet was riding in the mock-up F-100 cockpit immediately behind the dummy. No parachute was used,and the dummy was destroyed on land- ing, but information on stresses wastransmitted to ground receivers by a telemetering radio inside the dummy'schest. The wild tumbling of the un- stabilized seat and violent flailing ofthe limbs can be clearly seen. The heading photograph shows the rocket sled, and the upper four cine frames an experimental ejection. The other four high-speed pictures are of the tests in which George Smith's ejection experience was reproduced at 700-750 m.p.h.
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