✈The 200-lb ejection seat , with its 3,500 or so parts, is a remarkable piece of technology that not only gets pilots out of a crashing plane but also ensures they survive the experience more or less unscathed.
✈If the pilot ejects above 16,400 feet where oxygen is scarce, sensors on the chair will let it free-fall to get its occupant down to breathable air as fast as possible, & only then will the parachute open.
✈Ejecting at up to 65,000 feet from an aircraft flying at 700 mph is a violent process.
✈Despite the technology’s progression over the decades, you’re basically sitting on a small chair that has been rocket-propelled out of a malfunctioning aircraft, a parachute opens, you & the seat land—really hard.
✈Legs may get broken, vertebrae may be compressed.
✈A pilot who had to eject after his plane hit a large bird, says: “You are totally out of control when you eject & you drop super fast. I was sure I’d broken something.”
✈Pilots hesitate to pull the ejection seat handle because “we know that we are condemning a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, paid for with taxpayers’ money,” says another pilot !
Source – FL360aero