Parachuting Incidents from Jet Aircraft (1)
We were all deeply saddened by the crash of an F-4E 2020 aircraft of the 112th Fleet of Eskişehir 1st Main Jet Base in the vicinity of Konya on March 5, 2015, and the martyrdom of our two pilots in this accident. In the preliminary investigation conducted by the Air Force Command to determine the cause of the accident, it was announced that the aircraft entered an abnormal state in the air while the pilots were training to avoid SAM missiles at low altitude, and the pilots could not get out of this situation and crashed into the ground. At the press conference held in Eskişehir by Combat Air Force and Air Missile Defense Commander General Abidin Ünal on 9 March 2015 regarding this accident, while informing the press members about the cause of the accident, General Ünal stated that in this incident, the pilots were late in parachuting at low altitudes. "If our pilots hadn't been only 2 seconds late in parachuting, they would be among us now," he said.
Many accidents involving parachuting events that I remember throughout my flying life have now passed before my eyes like a film strip. It always hurts me that the pilots who need to parachute without hesitation in cases such as an abnormal situation in the air, fire and engine shutdown cannot do so. I thought it would be beneficial for me to write down some incidents in my memory that I hope my fellow pilots who served in the flight units would learn for themselves and share them with my pilot friends.
HISTORY OF EJECTION SYSTEMS
The system that enables pilots to parachute in the cockpit of combat jet aircraft and modern single propeller trainer aircraft manufactured in recent years is called the "Ejection System". I must first start with the history of ejection systems. The idea of first thinking and designing Ejection systems (this system is also called Jettison system) starts with British aircraft manufacturer James Martin. While working on the manufacture of MB1, MB2, MB3 model warplanes for the British Royal Air Force in the aircraft factory he founded, James Martin meets Pilot Captain Valentine Baker, who makes test flights of these, and they become close friends. Captain Baker, the engine of an MB3 type aircraft, which was manufactured by James Martin for the British Air Force in his factory, stopped as soon as it was taken off to make its test flight on 12 September 1942. While trying to make a forced landing with a stalled engine, when the wing of the plane crashes into a tree, the plane turns upside down and hits the ground, and Pilot Captain Baker dies in this accident. James Martin, who is very sad that his close friend Pilot Captain Baker lost his life in such an unfortunate accident, devotes all his work to inventions to save the lives of pilots. After working on many alternative systems, he thinks that the best system to save pilots' lives may be to eject the pilot's chair from the plane with an explosive device. It is from this idea that the ejection systems used in aircraft all over the world today are born. After Yzb Baker died in the accident, the jumping chair was named Martin-Baker to keep the name of Captain Baker alive, and this ejection system is named after him. James Martin, who thought and manufactured these systems that saved the lives of pilots, is given the title of "Sir" by the King of England.
The first static ejection test on a sled on the ground was performed on January 24, 1945. The first ejection test in flight is performed on July 24, 1946, by jumping from a twin-turbojet-engined Meteor-3 aircraft modified as a double by Pilot Bernard Lynch. In this trial, British pilot Bernard Lynch performs a successful ejection from the rear cockpit of the Meteor-3 aircraft at an altitude of 8,000 feet, at a speed of 280 knots. Pilot Lynch makes 30 more test jumps in the same way in the days following this jump.
Many developments related to the ejection system have followed each other. In 1961, the first zero speed / zero altitude jump system was manufactured. With the Martin-Baker ejection system used in 200 different model airplanes around the world, 7,400 successful jumps have been made so far. Americans use ACES II ejection systems manufactured by United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) on their aircraft. However, the British Martin Baker Mk16 type ejection system was used, not the American ejection system, in the 5th generation F-35 JSF aircraft, which the Americans produced jointly with eight foreign partner countries. On 29 November 2021, an F-35B pilot ejected from the deck while taking off from the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier of the British Navy, which was on duty in the Mediterranean, and survived. The announcement of the accident was made the same day on the official website of the British Ministry of Defense. In some of the comments posted on the official website of the Ministry of Defense about the accident, it was stated that the ejection of the pilot survived.
There have been British commentators who stated that the stem was British structure Martin-Baker and wrote that they were proud of it.
Russians use ejection systems produced by the Zvezda factory near Moscow in their warplanes. Established in 1952, the factory also manufactures explosive systems that allow cosmonauts, who go into space with rockets launched for space flights, to make a soft landing on the ground by slowing the speed of the capsule they are in before it touches the ground, in addition to the ejection systems attached to combat aircraft.
FABRICS WHICH ARE MANUFACTURED BY PARACHUTES
While examining the ejection systems in jet planes, I should also mention the fabrics and materials from which the pilot's parachutes are made. Parachutes were made from silk fabrics until nylon fabric was discovered during the Second World War. Silky fabrics were preferred because they were both thin and wrinkle-free, as well as light and strong. Japan was traditionally the world center of silk fabric manufacturing. All the countries of the world were importing silk fabrics from Japan to be used in the manufacture of the parachutes they needed for their pilots and paratroopers in their airborne divisions. When World War II broke out, Japan stopped selling silk fabrics. The country that was most affected by this was America, which was at war with Japan. Just as a bad neighbor made people a home, the Americans, who were in great trouble when the Japanese stopped exporting the silk fabric they need for parachute manufacture to the Americans, are comfortable with the scientists in their country discovering and producing the nylon fabric they will use in parachute manufacturing. they took a breath and were saved from a great tribulation. There are different explanations for where the word nylon came from. According to one explanation, the abbreviation of the word NYLON is that it is an acronym formed from the initials of the English words "Now You Lousy Old Nipponese". (Translated in Turkish, it means "Let's see what you are going to do now, dirty Japanese").
LAUNCHING MECHANISMS OF THE EJECTION SYSTEM
The companies that manufacture the ejection systems have placed the triggers and mechanisms that activate the ejection mechanisms of the pilot seat on the chair in different places and ways, taking into account the experiences gained in the ejection tests of the pilot seats on the ground and the opinions of the pilots. Wherever the ejection arms are located, they are all marked in yellow, black, orange to attract the pilot's attention.
In our time, the T-33, F-84, F-86, F-100 and F-102 type planes we flew, the ejection arm was located on the lower right edge of the pilot's chair. This ejection lever had two trigger mechanisms, one large and the other slightly smaller, one below the other. When the pilot pulled the top trigger, the cone was thrown, and when the bottom trigger was pulled, the pilot's chair was thrown. In order to prevent these triggers from being accidentally pulled on the ground, a conspicuous red striped safety pin was attached to them. Before taking off, the pilot would remove this safety pin and show it to the aircraft mechanic on the ground. Due to the fact that the ejection arm is on the lower right side of the pilot's chair and has a double trigger, some drawbacks have emerged, and in some planes, this arm is placed on the top of the pilot's chair in the form of an oval ring, at the upper level of the helmet. In F-4s, one is placed between the two knees of the pilot and the other is placed on the back of the pilot's helmet, while in F-16s it is placed between the two knees of the pilot in the form of a single ring on the chair.
In parallel with the development of technology in ejection systems, different manufacturing methods have been applied. Pyrotechnic (explosive cartridges) were used in the launch mechanisms of the first ejection systems. With this ejection system, pain and injuries occurred in the waist regions of some pilots who parachuted from the jets, in the following years, small rocket engines placed under the pilot's chairs were used left and right. A safety ejection system has been developed. When ejected in the cockpits of twin fighter aircraft, a one-second timing arrangement is in place so that the two pilots jump at the same time so that the rocket flames do not affect the other and collide in mid-air. With this arrangement, at fractions of a second intervals, 0.75 second intervals, as is still the case with F-4 aircraft, first the rear canopy and the rear chair; then the front canopy and the front chair are separated from the aircraft.
GROUND TRIALS OF EJECTION SYSTEMS
In the photo above, in the ground tests of the ejection system at zero speed/zero altitude, after the ejection arm on the pilot seat in the cockpit of the model with pilot weight is pulled and the launch control is given, the upward movement, the departure of the pilot seat on which the model sits, and the opening of the parachute can be seen in seconds.
GROUND EJECTION TRAININGS APPLIED TO STUDENT PILOTS IN THE USA
We are four student pilots who graduated from the 1956 circuit of the Air Force Academy. After completing our initial training in Gaziemir, we were sent to the United States for pilot training. After completing our language school and basic training on propeller-driven T-34 and T-28 propeller aircraft, we were sent to Greenville Base in Mississippi for advanced jet training. At this Base, before starting flights with T-33 model jet trainers, as part of the ground lessons given to us, they gave us a live course in parachuting from jet planes. After giving theoretical information on the technique of parachuting from jet planes in that course, they had practical training in parachuting at the Physiological Training Center located at the Base.
In the photo above, on the left, I am seen sitting upright in a chair ready to jump, and on the right, thrown up on the rail. Our Physiological Education Center teachers taught us how to sit upright in the pilot seat at the time of ejection, press our feet firmly to the places under the chair and lean our heads back upright, and then pull up the arms first on the right and then on the left side of the pilot ejection seat, which is exactly the same as the ejection system of the T-33 aircraft. They told us one by one that when we pulled the right arm and pulled the trigger under it, we would be thrown up on the sled with an explosion, that we would not see anything for a moment in the first second of jumping up, and when we came to the top of the sled, our vision would open. In fact, we experienced exactly what our teachers told us in floor lessons when we were tied to a chair and pulled the trigger for ejection.
FIRST RELIEF BY EJECTION SYSTEM - MAY 30, 1949
John Oliver "Jo" Lancaster of the British Royal Air Force was the first pilot to jump and survive using the ejection system. Pilot Jo Lancaster, while descending from an altitude of 5,000 feet, during his test flight with the A.W.52 Flying Wing model, which was manufactured for experimental purposes, on May 30, 1949, the pitch (uncontrolled up and down) movement began on the plane, and when he could not control the plane, he pulled the ejection arm of the chair and left the plane. Jo Lancaster, who was the first pilot to jump using the first manufactured Martin-Baker Mk1 type jettison system, was awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) by the Crown.
FIRST EJECTION IN SUPERSONIC FLIGHT
The first ejection event in supersonic (supersonic) flight was carried out on February 26, 1955, by Captain George F. Smith of the US Air Force's F-100A squadron.
SOME OF THE INTERESTING EJECTIONS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
I would like to share with my fellow pilots the story of some parachuting incidents that have stuck in my mind in my flying life and that separates a pilot's life and death lines. I would like these stories to be embedded in the consciousness, minds and brains of my young pilot friends and for them to learn lessons from these parachuting events. In the examples I will give here, instead of ejections made at medium and high altitudes, ejections made at low altitudes, which are much more critical, are given.
JUMP AT CRITICAL ALTITUDE ON FOREIGN AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT
Captain Christopher Stricklin, one of the pilots of the acrothym arm of the US Air Force's F-16C aircraft, during the demonstration flight of the Thunderbirds acrothym on 14 September 2003 in the state of Idoha, at a very low altitude, parachuted at a low altitude in front of an audience of more than 100 thousand. The photograph below shows the moment Captain Stricklin leaves the plane. Captain Stricklin escaped the accident unscathed. Since the plane he used crashed somewhere far away from the audience, no one was killed or injured by the audience.
JUMP FROM BRITISH ROYAL AIR FORCE HARRIER AIRCRAFT
Below, a video of this incident, in which the flames of the rocket engine were seen under his chair as he jumped out of the British Harrier type aircraft, was circulated on social media.
In the video, the plane approached the runway head with a normal glide angle for landing, after hitting the main landing gear on the runway very hard, the nose landing gear hit the runway hard, the nose landing gear was broken, the plane drifted on the runway, the plane suddenly caught fire as the plane approached the middle of the runway. and it was seen in the video that the pilot made an ejection and his parachute opened two or three seconds after the plane caught fire. The video showing this accident happening second to second can be found and watched on the Internet.
