Jessi Combs gone?

The original ejected down. The TF-104s down at Cape Canaveral are modded with upward 0/0 seats. Very pricey.

 

An ejection seat is incredible peace of mind. It offers an option when the shit has really hit the fan. Don’t know why it wouldn’t work in these situations. They do the testing on rocket sleds after all. Certainly would be a hit on their weight budget, and not cheap either. I’m sure there are plenty of Martin Baker seats available if someone is willing to properly refresh and maintain it.

 

An ejection seat typically on goes 2-300ft. She would need more than that to give the chute ample time to open (I would think)???

 

No, all modern seats have rocket deployed parachutes. This lifts the parachute above the seat. The seats also have gyros and thrust vectoring to immediately orient the seat vertically after it clears the aircraft for cases where the aircraft is steeply banked, or even inverted. Then once the seat is oriented head up, the parachute is fired upwards. This all happens in milliseconds. Or, for aircraft, if at high altitude it waits until you get lower (~13k’) to limit time in the very cold, oxygen lacking, high altitude environment.

We can thank the Canuks for demonstrating the capabilities of the Martin Baker NACES.

Canopy is gone, seat is clearing the aircraft. Can see small pitot static tubes have deployed measuring altitude, airspeed, etc.



Drogue chute attached to seat has deployed. Not really relevant to this scenario as the seat will very quickly be separated from the pilot. Seat has already started to orient vertically using thrust vectoring. The main parachute is likely fired immediately after this pic was taken. The little rocket that is attached to the chute is on the top, back left of the seat. You can see the risers (shoulder straps) connecting pilot to chute on the headrest in the top picture. The waist straps go to the seatpan which will stay with the pilot, and the leg straps that pull the calves in during ejection will be released from the seat.

 

Then the pilot calmly struts into the nearest cafe and grabs some water.

 

No idea what the crew's plans might be, but I'm of the opinion that there isn't anything left besides their pit equipment and knowledge to re-start this project up with, to add this safety feature to.

 

Another thing is that it appears they wheels were solid and that dirt looked awfully soft. Looking at the tire tracks. Is there a reason they went there instead of say bonneville?

Are those solid wheels better? I imagine you cant get a rubber wheel to hold together at those speeds I would assume.

Still a sad story, but still amazing that she still has the record. If there is anything positive I guess......

 

Just a reminder of what is missed in the world.