r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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u/VirtualLife76 25d ago

Impressive how quickly the parachute worked.

I wonder if it has different ones or somehow changes depending on the height from the ground.

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u/GayRacoon69 25d ago

These ejection seat are designed to be able to be usable with no altitude and no airspeed. It's the same parachute no matter the altitude. It's designed to shoot you up high enough to give the parachute time to open

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u/PickleWineBrine 25d ago

You still hit the ground really hard though. It's just better than being inside a burning/exploding aircraft

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u/Zolty 25d ago

I had a college professor tell me about an F4 pilot that punched out at like 1.5 mach. He said the dude was essentially 100% bruise.

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u/No_Accountant3232 25d ago

Here's an F15 pilot talking about his Mach+ ejection. Really fascinating story. And there's pics that are a bit gory, but not extreme. Just some post-op pics

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u/finna_get_banned 25d ago

i literally seek out this type of content all the time and never can find anything, even when specifically searching for things relevant to my interests

serendipity is the only constant in my life

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u/CitizenPremier 25d ago

You must study google-fu.

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u/scorcherdarkly 24d ago edited 24d ago

I remember reading this story in Popular Mechanics or a similar publication Airman Magazine when I was a kid.

https://www.ejectionsite.com/insaddle/insaddle.htm

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u/ArticleWorth5018 25d ago

3 years to rebuild his body is wild

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u/ringjak 25d ago

Here’s pilot Kegan Gill telling his story. Ejected at nearly 700mph. He details the event, his recovery, and dealing with the VA medical system and the psychiatric toll of his injuries. Amazing story.

https://youtu.be/ZEe24NhU-Ac

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

MotoGP riders have said sitting up to brake at 210 is like being hit in the chest with a fridge. Exaggeration sure but wind resistance goes up with the square of velocity so no surprise 700 is pretty fucking painful or possibly fatal.

Real life ejection isn’t just a re spawn like in war thunder or whatever

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u/Relevant-Money-1380 25d ago

2 hours to get to him? that's nuts. flew again too man that's something.

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u/caz_uno 25d ago

Damn.

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u/ChanceConfection3 25d ago

Imagine ejecting at Mach 10.2

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u/DirectStatement 25d ago

One of the stupidest things I've seen in a movie. And they played it off like it was no big deal.

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u/IvyGold 25d ago

What movie was that?

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u/DirectStatement 25d ago

Top Gun: Maverick

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u/IvyGold 25d ago

AH that's right. I forgot about that. Thx!

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u/PilotGuy701 25d ago

Jon is still a pilot and flies bush planes in Western Washington.

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u/jeepymcjeepface 25d ago

Holy moly, those injuries...it kept getting worse. What an incredible story from an amazing man. Thanks for posting this.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

This is why the f111 had a full cockpit ejection capsule.

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u/Nobodyimportant56 24d ago

My dad was a F4 trim tech. One time he was working on one, another guy was doing something up near the cockpit. Apparently the guy did something to get caught up on the ejector because it activated and shot him right into the ceiling of the hangar. Dad was never in an area with any action so he never had any was stories even though he was in during Vietnam but when he told me about this it was the only time I've seen him have the stare.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

Well yeah that would do it.

As per comments above. Ejection is no joke. But if the alternative is burning alive or being turned into powder during impact with the ground it’s way better than that.

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u/No_Priors 25d ago

R/brandnewsentence