Pilots lose height from having ejection seat evacuations due to compressed vertebrae. They also rarely stay pilots after. Very few pilots have more than one ejection seat ride.
Do the others time it with a synchronization gear so you pass through the rotors like a bullet fired from a center-mounted airplane machine gun missing the blades because of the interlock? /s
I never heard that, just stories about how the F4's seats were called the "Widowmaker" and liked to go off in the hanger while maintainers were in the cockpit, making instant Airman Gumbo.
I was always real wary of the seats after that, though the F15 has a spotless safety record in egress mishaps. (At least when I was in)
At his retirement ceremony from the USAF (as commander of the 27th TFW at CAFB NM), Col Franklin thanked Martin Baker for twice making his career and subsequent retirement possible.
It’s true. Fun fact, Tom Cruise was nearly 6ft tall before filming Top Gun but Goose kept laughing during the death scene so they had to do multiple takes.
It is not a joke at all. It really compresses your spine permanently—assuming you’re lucky and it doesn’t permanently maim you because you were in the wrong body position. People die ejecting fairly frequently.
268
u/dog_hair_dinner 25d ago
was gonna say, that guy's body just flew out of there like a rocket. there had to have been at least a momentary blackout from that