well most of us do our jobs stationary and on the ground fighter pilots do theirs above
the clouds well for the speed of sound and at that speed if something goes wrong they
need a reliable method of getting out quickly the ejection seat is this method shooting the
pilot from the plane and descending with a parachute however escaping an exploding
wreck by launching oneself even faster has several Health complications potentially
causing permanent injury but hey it's better than dying today we discover the fascinating
history of ejection seats I'm your host Ryan silkash and you're watching it's history [Music]
in the early days of Aviation there was no solid idea for an escape method however
there was indeed a move towards it as far back as 1910. back then A Primitive exit system typically
involved a bungee cord the time without an ejector's seat was short-lived however as
on September the 22nd 1916 13 years after the Wright brothers first flight a British engineer
patented the compressed air parachute extraction system this system launched the parachute using
compressed air and the pilot followed shortly thereafter thanks to his hinged seat as World
War one came about Escape methods remained around the idea of Simply bailing from the
aircraft with a parachute nothing more pilots and balloonists carried parachutes in case something
occurred at which point they would jump out during that conflict and the interwar period
planes were slower and cockpits were limited to just the front windshield so unhooking the
seat harness and jumping out the side side was really pretty feasible however there were some
problems for example if the damage to the plane affected the pilot in any incapacitating manner
bailing became much more difficult or even impossible G-Force from a steep descent also
posed a challenge and this is to say nothing of the frequent lack of space in the cockpit in the
first place regardless Pilots managed to jump clear from their crashing aircraft with enough
regularity that there was really no need to fix what already worked but with the second world
war as aircraft became much faster and cockpits evolved to encase the pilot in glass the world's
Air Forces needed a better Escape method gunpowder rejection seats began production in Sweden under
the company Saab and Nazi Germany followed suit with an experimental fighter the ejection involved
manually launching the canopy then activating explosive bolts to shoot parts of the plane away
yet some elements in the German Nazi Air Force mentioned that these Escape systems prompted some
doubt speaking of Nazi Germany was the first nation to use jet-powered aircraft in Warfare
as Jets were much faster and more volatile than propeller-powered aircraft they needed ejection
seats more than any other aircraft at the time one German test aircraft and the first jet fighter
the he-280 facilitated the first successful seed ejection using the mention method on January the
13th 1942 with this the ejection seat existed conceptionally and entered into practical use
as the jet aircraft entered General military use worldwide so did the ejection seat ejection seats
are only really found in military aircraft as those aircrafts are most at high risk it always
makes headlines when civilian aircraft goes down because it's so rare that when it happens
the Rarity alone is worth reporting on bailing out on the other hand isn't an option with each Jet's
ever-climbing speeds and explosive potential this decision to exit with an ejection seat it isn't
made lightly in fact it is often the last possible option when all else fails let me explain why
disregarding the costs of a jet and focusing solely on the pilot it's still not an ideal
situation many modern jets operate past the speed of sound which is 1235 kilometers per hour or 767
miles per hour for reference the forces exerted on the pilot at that speed are extreme enough to
cause serious injury during ejection specifically when ejecting the rocket-propelled seat exerts on
average 18 G forces on the pilot remember that 1G is the force of gravity on your body and is
equal to your body's weight 18 G's equals 18 times your body's weight and an ejection seat applies
all that weight in just 0.2 seconds with all that pressure applied in just a fraction of a second
it's no wonder that around 20 to 30 percent of Pilots that eject from Jets suffer spinal
fractions these fractures tend to occur lower in the spine and often require surgery should
they be unstable otherwise a brace serves just fine Studies have also shown that those sitting
up straight in the seat distribute the pressure applied across the spine instead of more relaxed
posture that devotes more to a bending Point sitting up straight in the ejection seat could
reduce the risk of injury but it's far from a guarantee and that's not to say that all ejections
inflict significant damage allow me to elaborate in an ejection from an F-15 in 2021 the pilot
ejected successfully and landed entirely unharmed except for some minor soreness and bruising it's
also not uncommon for some little neck pains for a little while afterward or some abrasions or Cuts
even there was even an ejection from an F-16 in 2020 where the pilot walked away entirely
unharmed with no bruises or anything so it varies regardless of the damage to the spine these seats
save lives and are undoubtedly a better option than riding out the plane to crash when all other
options fail choosing to eject from the plane increases your odds of survival from 35 percent
to 90 percent now we need to address some of the rumors surrounding ejection seats for example one
of the most highly publicized is that you'll lose body height after an injury sustained by ejection
this is true but it is relatively rare loss of height only occurs if vertebrae in the lower
section of the spine which is the middle part of the back gets severely damaged for example a 34
year old Navigator of a tornado F3 fighter ejected after colliding with another tornado fighter
losing part of its right wing in the process in the ejection his ninth vertebrae fourth from
the lowest suffered damage causing him to lose height in that area after physical therapy he was
discharged from care and returned to his flying duties another example of loss of height comes
from an f-15qa designed for a guitar whose Pilots ejected as it was rolling Off The Runway in 2021
the front pilot seat suffered a burst fracture in his 12 vertebrae the lowest one it lost 50 percent
of its height making the pilot lose about half an inch both of the pilots survived as did the
aircraft another rumor surrounding ejection seats is that a pilot can only eject a certain number
of times before the damage to their spine becomes too great to fly well this is true to a degree but
there's no set number by the U.S Air Force it's all up to the surgeon as damage from ejection
varies from occurrence to occurrence as mentioned before regardless ejecting from an aircraft is
exceedingly rare most Pilots never have to and those that do rarely have to do it again
in the U.S Air Force ejections have become rarer and rarer since 1978 there have been
493 ejections from Aces two ejection seats of those only 42 died leaving survival rates at 91
percent in a study conducted with the Royal Air Force observing 232 ejections since 1990 ejection
survival was 89.2 percent of that percentage 29.4 suffered spinal fractures different plane
models have different ejection rates the plane with the most USAF ejections since August the
8th 1978 was the F-16 though that might be more of a testament to popularity than anything else
312 Pilots ejected from f-16s and only two died the f-35a had only one ejection the B2 Spirit had
four and the A10 had two ejections no deaths the only major except option in death rate is
the U2 spy plane as two pilots ejected and only one survived leaving the stats at 50 survival
rates but that's an outlier so where do things go wrong let's have a closer look every ejection is
different and sometimes circumstances don't work out for example one F-16 pilot ejected in 2013
but his head was off to the side of the headrest as a result the wind blast forced down onto his
neck and broke it another example occurred with an F-15 pilot in 2012 ejection from the plane
went smoothly but he collided with an object in midair and died lastly there are sometimes
just freak accidents for example in Romania a pilot landed safely but his boot got stuck on
the mig-15s ejection seat lever as he exited the cockpit it fired unfortunately he died on impact
so what lies in store for ejection seats well deaths are declining it's still not perfect a
few recommendations are thrown around within the United States Air Force and they may clue us as to
what's to come primarily their main concern lies in communication exit training and pointing out
common ejection hazards would fix many problems informing more people about safety tips is an
excellent way to get down that death rate even further of course there are some problems limited
to specific plane models such as a recommendation to qualify new seat cushions for the F-35 there's
also a fine tuning of other Hardware but nothing with the ejection seat itself so basically the
current model the aces2 appears to be here to stay and while there may always be risks ejection seats
will always be necessary no matter what kind of risk it poses to bodily harm that increased
chance of survival is preferable to the alternate whatever kind of injury it is is preferable to
dying and at the end of the day getting out alive is the most important thing wouldn't you agree let
me know your thoughts in the comments section below send me your episode ideas on Instagram
and don't miss our video about assault gliders until next time this is Ryan so cash signing off