On our way to the 1996 Convention in Virginia Beach, I had a brief opportunity to wander through the National Air & Space Museum's restoration facility at Silver Hill, Maryland. During our walking tour, as usual for Silver Hill, you just about get over seeing one fantastic sight, restoration project or historical flight object when you see something of even greater importance. We had just spent some time watching and talking with one of the staff members who was working on the restoration of the Museum's recently acquired Hurricane (his current task was just taking shape: Duplicating a specific type of a rivet used in the original construction during WW II and the correct shade of primer used inside the fuselage.)
As I was trying to fully absorb that detail and the painstaking restoration work, we saw a small group dedicated to restoring NASM's SE-5 WW I aircraft. As we were looking on, they were about the embark on restoring the early pilot's seat.
It was fascinating, watching with the original remnants and their work to duplicate and fabricate a new seat. The seat was just that a plain seat constructed of thin wood strips (about 4-5 inches wide) woven into a rough chair shape and held together with small brass rivet like fasteners. As interesting as that was my mind was again going back over the project I worked on for about 2 years that of restoring a modern ejection seat. The changes over the last 75-80 years in airplane seats is an amazing study in technology. It is but one instance of how the evolution of modern aircraft has come such a distance, most of it during our recent life time.
For some strange reason, in my earlier modeling work, I became interested in the concept, construction and operation of modern ejection seats. Why? Well, in large part, because as the interiors and canopy pieces became larger and of better quality. One can easily see the pilots' seat and while the individual instruments and other features of the interior may be only approximated for the most part (with my apologies to John Alcorn, Bob Davies and Arlo Schroeder, who all seem intent on having operating instruments and cockpit features!). Many of the life saving devices, handles, etc. are also very colorful in otherwise not so colorful interiors and their inclusion in the completed model sets them apart from those who build "straight from the box." So where do I begin and how many straps are there in the seat, what does the seat look like (shape and contour) and how can I approximate the appearance of the actual ejection seat? Each of the questions, as is the case with many other aspects of scale modeling, can drive you to drink in serious quantities and force you look for answers to questions you want or need to answer.
This brings me to the issue at hand, the modern ejection seat. From my few resources, it is easy to see there are numerous types of ejection seats and even more individual sub-types or marks. However there are some basic common features, or at least it seems that way to me, and I hoped someone might like to share in what information I have (or think I know). I am approaching this from a reasonably narrow viewpoint and will try to cover these questions in at least some basic form:
(a) Basic ejection seat theory and function
(b) Typical ejection seat construction (straps, major parts, etc.)
(c) Modeling and color suggestions
(d) A summary of known types used in modern military aircraft (with drawings)
Since most of my first-hand knowledge is of modern US Navy aircraft, you will quickly notice these notes and equipment described tends to reflect those aircraft. I will happily include more information for other aircraft as those of you who have additional tech manuals and resources will share them with me and I will continue to build on addition information.
With those caveats in mind then, here goes. I hope this will bring some new or enhanced perspective to your modeling. Enjoy.
As many of you have read, initially it was considered very "un-manly" to even consider wearing a parachute in an airplane. Several countries made a concerted effort to warn their pilots not to even think about anything other than their assigned mission-to think about getting out of the airplane was out of the question. In this country pilot safety was always of some concern, following the first fatality in a military aircraft accident. Through most of WW II it was considered an even bet that should something happen to the aircraft you could use your parachute. Most aircrew members wore them all of the time, usually sitting on the chute that doubled as a seat cushion and merely jumped from the airplane, time and altitude permitting. With the arrival of modern, jet and other types of high performance aircraft, the pilots sought more of an advantage in getting away from the aircraft, often when the pilot was incapacitated or unconscious and the plane crippled. Both the British and American aerospace worked toward enhancing pilot survivability leading to what we have known as the modern ejection seat and its related equipment. Most of the modem seats are known simply as "O-O' (zero-zero) seats, meaning that they are fully capable of ejection of the aircrewmen from "0" feet altitude and without any forward airspeed (as opposed to earlier seats which required a predetermined altitude and speed for safe deployment of the seat and its parachute). As an added note, since I began these notes, Bill Johnson was kind enough to lend me a copy of a book published by the Martin Baker company in England, in which they very clearly illustrate their early efforts to design and build ejection seats. From all that I have seen, the Martin-Baker company is clearly one of, if not the world's leader in these efforts over the last 45+ years.
It appears to me that the greatest interest in modern ejection seats was the direct result of the Navy's interest in their carrier based pilots. For the most part, the other services felt the need was largely one of getting the pilot or crew member out of an aircraft that was at least at altitude. The Navy was confronted by their need to insure the survival of a pilot who was often sitting still or best in the early throws of preflight and may be only a few feet above the deck surface.
The ejection seat is quite an engineering feat in itself. It is usually a light weight, yet very strong material, able to withstand the high g-load of the rocket's ejection (from the aircraft), contains the parachute for the crewman, the survival kit (usually in a rigid seat kit, containing the material I mentioned in an earlier article), a separate booster rocket to 11 "right" the seat, some type of stabilizing equipment, separate oxygen supplies for the crewman (though some of the newer seats like the Martin-Baker SJU series actually contain their own self-contained oxygen generation systems) and the pilot's attachments for the seat, the parachute, survival kit, and communications connectors. These modern seats are really marvels of aerospace engineering. Large scale models of such a seat would be a very interesting modeling subject in itself. The seat is usually mounted onto or into to the aircraft using a "rail" type of system and often attached to the back of the bulkhead itself, rather than the floor of the aircraft (which appears to be the way most model kits depict them). One should also note that there are still a few "pod" types of ejection systems in operation, such as in the EF- 111, B-58 and B -1 aircraft, where the entire area around the aircrew is ejected from the aircraft and leaves with the aircrew inside for it's ascent. For the most part however, the basic ejection seats are similar to those described in this article.
Another facet of this story is that until the U.S. started using the Martin Baker and ESCAPAC style of seats (about the early 60's), most of the early ejection seats were largely "in house" products of the aircraft companies themselves. When one bought a B-52, an F- 106 or an F-I 1, one acquired whatever type of seat the manufacturer provided. These were usually the very basic types of seats. A look at the basic Martin-Baker Mk 7 seat (see drawings) illustrates this point well I believe.
Modern ejection seats are highly developed technological wonders! One could imagine what would happen if a modem techno-thriller author like Tom Clancy were to learn about these seats and include this type of knowledge into a book of his fiction!
These parts are the major components only. Believe me, I am skimming the surface. When you look into the individual seats, one will quickly find many added subsystems and functional parts. In the case of the ESCAPAC IG-2 seat illustrated throughout this article, the seat manual alone runs over 400 pages of parts and instructions. The rigid seat survival kit, without its contents, is over 40 pages of diagrams and instructions. It is very easy to understand why the current generation of ejection seats are no longer a simple aluminum frame, but rather a million dollar plus engineering facet of the aircraft itself.
Another limiting factor which demonstrates the cost of these seats is that the government has apparently stopped the practice of providing an ejection seat to each pilot who has survived their ejection from a modern jet. The cost of a modern ejection seat prohibits it from being removed from inventory unless damaged beyond repair.
One would think it might be easy to "just get out of the airplane" and "hit the silk." You've seen it the Flying Tigers and many other Hollywood epics. The pilots pull back the canopy, stand up (often not even taking the time to undo their seat belts ... I'm telling you, those were when men were real men .... ), step out and stand on the wing and jump (....into the mattress carefully laid out for them below the wing). I've spoken with two members of the Caterpillar Club (both Navy pilots) who, during WW II, jumped and survived. Neither thought it was such a neat deal at the time and both thanked God to be alive after the experience. Two other acquaintances related their experiences in "leaving" an F-4 and F-8; both said they never really wanted to go through it again, their ejection seats both "worked as advertised" and they say "it was the most thrilling ride they did not want to take." They each sustained some minor physical damage. One lost his rear seat RIO. As a direct result of the all to numerous ejections encountered in our Viet Nam efforts, the current seats are much more highly automated than earlier seats and have built-in features which will hopefully greatly increase the pilots survival, even when unaware of the ejection. Current U.S. military studies point to about a 90% survival rate when the ejection seat is properly deployed.
Beginning the initiation process (assuming the pilot is capable of doing so under his own power) is normally handled in one of two methods: (1) using the lower handle (between the legs and in front of the seat) or (2) using the face curtain. Both methods are best illustrated above.
For the best understanding, I have "borrowed" several drawings, which I hope will better illustrate the ejection sequence itself. The first of these shows the sequence in the order of ejection (from an A-7), the second set, to give a bit more detail to the major steps as the pilot is ejected (again from an A-7) and the third, the actual times involved in the full ejection sequence. As you will see from the time-line graph, the entire time, from initiation of the pilot's ejection sequence in only about 5 seconds! The timing is quite precise and very quick as you will notice. In an aircraft such as the F-14, F/ A-18 or EA-6B (which has four ejection seats and aircrew positions) the timing is even more critical and there are built-in time lapse sequences between the various seats as they are fired and ejected from the aircraft
In an EA-6B, for example the timing sequence is even more critical, when you realize there are often a full crew of 3 or 4 pilots and NFOs (or ECMO: electronic counter measures officer) in the aircraft, each of which has to have his precise departure from the aircraft in a very exact position and apart from the others.
Their sequence is (following the ejection initiation):
|
|
|
| ECMO 3 (left rear position) | 0 sec's |
| ECMO 2 (right rear position) |
0.40 sec's |
| ECMO I (right front position) | 0.80 sec's |
| Pilot (left front position) | 1.20 sec's |
There are a few other small details incorporated into modern seats. One is the ability for the seat to work effectively underwater (should the aircraft be submerged), with full oxygen supply to the pilot (assuming his oxygen mask is in place) and the ability of the pilot's parachute and harness to separate while in the water. One was mentioned earlier in these notes. The Navy (and subsequently all services) have incorporated this unique device in the parachute harnesses called "SEAWARS" releases. It automatically releases the chute from the pilot's harness as it senses salt water, thereby relieving them of the often fatal drag of water into the parachute. While it may seem like fun to be in the water, apparently drowning in the sea is one of the most common problems encountered by pilots downed at sea.
As a beginning to this discussion, it is important to observe that many a fine modeler has significantly lost their opportunity to place in modeling competitions by their simple lack of any semblance of seat belts, harnesses or anything else representing how the pilot of their modeling subject is actually held into the aircraft! Recently while judging in a regional contest, the judges were significantly impressed with a modeler's efforts and the finished model, until one observed the aircraft interior and saw there was just a pilots seat and nothing done to 
represent the seat's shoulder harness or seat belt. These are items which become common place in almost every aircraft from the WW I period through today. Whether the modeler represents these items with decals, photo etched items, masking tape, hamburger wrapper foil or wine bottle lead (among the many materials used today), the critical thing is to use something.
I will discuss and enumerate two seats most often used in the Navy's A-7 Corsair II and F-4 Phantom II aircraft to illustrate these notes. As noted earlier, your input and suggestions are most welcome about other systems and seats, which I will pass on to others as well. Both seats, the ESCAPAC IG-2 and Martin-Baker MK H7 seats are often modeled (sometimes correctly) and has several easily discernible features. Much of what I am outlining below holds equally true to the ejection seats used by Air Force aircraft today. Given the wide spread use of American built aircraft and interior packages with other nations operating U.S. aircraft or equipment, similar features are found on the modern military aircraft of many other nations as well. In fact, from what little Soviet (or license built) equipment I have seen, our design features seem to be very similar with much of what they fly today as well. One wonders how their ejection seats could be so similar in design, features and appearance? (I am sure they were just thinking along the same lines, right .... ?) With the recent appearance of the many fine F-4 models in all scales and the A-7 in both 72nd and 1/48th scales, either of these may be the ideal ejection seats to try your modeling and detail efforts. Each set is also now widely available in aftermarket detail kits and a large amount of detail is shown in these parts, but not always fully understood by the modeler. At least I had a number of questions and was just guessing about much of the attached or associated equipment. I hope this helps you. The photo above illustrates my finished M-B Mk 7 seat for the Tamiya 1/32 F-4C kit.
There are also several very attractive figures of modern pilots, both Navy and Air Force available and when painted, they create great additions to your model collection and give another sense of size and reality to your completed models of the associated aircraft. Additionally many of you like to add the aircrew to your completed models and this information will hopefully add to that realism.
At least in one sense, I hope this basic description will allow you to understand and better visualize what the basic seat parts are and possibly more accurately demonstrate or model them in your completed models. As a "sometimes judge," I often hear the complaints of others that a nicely modeled interior misses in some basic area: omitting throttles, a flight control device, having just one lap belt in the area or the belt having two long pieces of material and having a large metal buckle on one end or having shoulder harnesses which are seemingly never-ending (sometimes reaching the floor of the cockpit). The basic attachment pieces in a modern ejection seat are not like automobile seat belts (nor are they equipped with air bags). These items are reasonably simple to replicate.
I am not of the belief that a modeler can faithfully replicate all of the detail in a cockpit, the ejection seat or the area and structure surrounding the seat, especially in 72nd or smaller scales. However, there are some basic "shapes" and features which seem (to me at least) to "jump out" at you when you look into the cockpit. With the advent of the latest highly detailed interiors and with many of the fine aftermarket parts and cockpit areas, the modelers appears to have gained a significant advantage over the Airfix, Revell, Frog or even Hasegawa model of old. Additionally, even when you don't elect to open the cockpit up, the many very clear canopies beg for the modeler to do something with the interior, including the ejection seat.
Colors are of special interest and can sometimes be a bit confusing. I try to locate a color picture of the aircraft & seat in question, often relying upon a magazine or book for color reference. I have several books which I tend not to use simply because my experience leads me to believe the author, photographer or publisher has made mistakes or appears to overstate their expertise (some of you have seen these mistakes and know of whe
re I speak). I also suggest you start taking an active interest inside the aircraft you see, photograph and research. Gone are the days when some junior grade lieutenant would come rushing up and warn you against taking photographs of interiors and what your camera catches today will surely be gone in the future and you'll pay some "expert" to describe the colors and features to you. I also use the word "suggestions" because for color suggestion I submit here there are exceptions. In the world of "personal survival and support" equipment there are often local construction, repair or fabrication of many of these items and you will notice changes or other colors being used. These seats and the associated metal edges and equipment are almost always scratched and show the constant wear of pilots climbing in and out of the aircraft. In this respect some weathering is called for in and around most seats and cockpits. This is often very realistic and done with "dry brushing" metallic or gray colors over the ejection seat edges and sides (I like Floquil's Gunmetal and its finishing effect). I prefer to use the grays/black paints, rather than metallic, since my modern seats (and cockpit interiors) I have seen are scuffed and have paint scratched away, but usually revealing the undercoat colors rather than the bear metal itself. These finishing touches and colors may also be represented or brought out in detail by using pastels and pencils. Again, a few reference photos are worth their weight in gold, since you'll quickly observe that their are a lot of worn and abraded areas on even the newest of service aircraft. The following picture is of my restored ESCAPAC seat, from an A-7E aircraft (which you will notice was painted gray, as opposed to the Air Force's and Navy seats which were painted black).
Generally most modern seat pads, lumbar supports and parachute packs (U.S. that is) are of an olive drab or darker green colors, the various belts and straps either light gray, light green-gray or sometimes almost white heavy nylon strapping, the metal fittings aluminum. Most head rests now seem to be in almost a black color or dark gray, while they were often
bright red, orange or light gray in the mid-50's through late 60's (experience with combat in S.E. Asia and air-to-air visibility taught us some valuable lessons about how far away an adversary could see a head rest and especially the gloss white flight helmets). Most ejection seats themselves are painted metal. The USN and USAF appears to have used light grays throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s. Recently most seats are painted in black. Most seats also have a variety of small placards, warning labels and ejection prompts, most of which contain red, yellow, bright silver or white instructions (many of them intended for external readers, not the pilots). A standard feature in every ejection seat I've seen (including the Soviet seats) is the very prominent "safe" flag or streamer attached to the seat. This normally is about the head rest or seat top and can be easily seen by ground personnel and crewmen alike. In fact a normal check list ritual is for the pilot to hold up or display his final "safe" pin and flag to demonstrate that the seat is active before startup or movement of the aircraft. The photo above illustrates my partially finished M-B Mk 7 seats and the surrounding cockpit tube for the Tamiya 1/32 F-4C kit, using the Verlinden aftermarket detailing kit.
Many of these are clearly visible to people outside the aircraft in case of external rescue operations to remove an unconscious pilot. Hoses and connectors are also usually metallic or mid-olive green as well, with gunmetal or aluminum connection fittings. Almost all ejection initiating handles (for the face curtains), between the legs and along the seat sides are almost universally bright yellow and often crossed with black warning stripes (e.g., the M-B yellow and black dual face curtain handles prominently seen in every F-4 Phantom). Again, it may be that only the brief highlight of colors about the seat and its features will convey the appearance of the complex and highly detailed ejection seat. If you're modeling the 1/32nd Phantom, you had best be attuned to some of these details, their respective function and color. Such detail attention will go a long way to create the highly accurate presentation we strive for as scale modelers.
Several Basic Ejection Seats Used In Modern Naval Aircraft:
| Seat Type: | Aircraft Type: |
| Martin-Baker GRUEA-7 | EA-6B |
| M-B MK GRU-7 | A-6 |
| M-B MK GRU-7A | F- 14 |
| M-B MK MK-H7 | F-4 |
| M-B MK SJU-5/A, 6/A | F/A-18A/B/C/D |
| M-B MK SJTJ-17(V)1/1, 2/A | F/A-18C/D |
| Stencel SJU-4A/13/14 | AV-8B & TAV-8B |
| Stencel SJU-8A/l1A/12A | A-7E, TA-7C & EA-7L |
| ESCAPAC IG-3 | A-4, TA-4 |
| ESCAPAC IG-2/4/5 | A-7E, TA-7C & EA-7L |
| ESCAPAC IEI | S-3 |
| North American LS-IA | T-2C |
| North American LW-3B | OV-10 |
| Northrup M-38 | T-38, F-5 |
| ACES-II | F-16 |
These are the basic seats and Navy aircraft known to me. Some of these aircraft are no longer active with the fleet, but may be used by contractors for the Navy/Marine Corps, hence their inclusion in the Navy's support system for ejection seats. This list also covers a significant number of current modern U.S. aircraft of which there are numerous models available. Almost all are readily available to the modeler today, either in the original kit or as after market parts, and offer a wide range of modern modeling subjects.
I also recommend several other web sites for ejection related notes and information. These include
Each of these provides historical, photographic, further references and in-depth information about these fascinating, life saving devices.
