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How Ejection Seats Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff, Work Stops
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Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
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Speaker 1: That's Charles W. Chuck. Chucker's Bryant. This is stuff you
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Speaker 1: should know. You can just call us MAV and Goose
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Speaker 1: for this one. No you can't. Okay, okay, it depends
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Speaker 1: who's MAV and who's Goose. Well, the the re email,
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Speaker 1: I said that it's very appropriate for the show. Why
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Speaker 1: because Goose died because his ejection seed malfunction. I know
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Speaker 1: he hit his head on the canopy. I know I
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Speaker 1: broke his neck. Is because he'd angered God earlier that day,
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Speaker 1: I guess so, so I'll be Goose. Are you planning
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Speaker 1: on dying? I'm just planning on you feeling guilt for
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Speaker 1: the rest of your life. You caused the spin by
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Speaker 1: being a guns blazing maverick. That is true, but I
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Speaker 1: would be like, I didn't design the injection seat. That's
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Speaker 1: the guy who should feel guilty for the rest of
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Speaker 1: his life. I'm gonna go get a taco. Um. Yeah,
1:12
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ride my motorcycle around Miramar. It's funny.
1:15
Speaker 1: When I saw top Gun, and I may have talked
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Speaker 1: about this before, I remember thinking at the time, like, people,
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Speaker 1: you don't die in training exercises like that, that's so hollywood.
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Speaker 1: It up as a matter of fact, that happened very
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Speaker 1: well two years ago. It happens all the time. You
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Speaker 1: never hear about it. Yeah, there's the guys that make
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Speaker 1: the papers, my paper. It doesn't. It's sad that it doesn't,
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Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, like it. It happens. Our military died
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Speaker 1: during training and it's it's awful. My brother in law
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Speaker 1: is a helicopter pilos, you know, and he's lost several
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Speaker 1: friends through the years in training. Yeah. Is it in
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Speaker 1: crashes or from ejection seats crashes? Yeah? Um, there was
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Speaker 1: a guy in two thousand and eleven. You know the
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Speaker 1: Blue Angels, the what there's also the Red Arrows. Yeah,
2:02
Speaker 1: I know the Blue Angels. Okay, Well the Red Arrows
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Speaker 1: um are another formation flying team, like just basically some
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Speaker 1: really great pilots, and one of them was killed when
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Speaker 1: his ejection seat went off while his plane was motionless.
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Speaker 1: The ejection seat just accidentally went off. That's a zero
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Speaker 1: zero ejection and that what that's called. Yes, but that
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Speaker 1: means you're on the ground and you're not flying at all. Right, Um,
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Speaker 1: but I think the problem is the plane didn't realize
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Speaker 1: where the ejection. Um, the sequencer didn't realize that it
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Speaker 1: was a zero zero ejection because the paras you never deployed.
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Speaker 1: So he died when he fell back down to earth
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Speaker 1: from a couple hundred feet out. I guess, yeah, well,
2:44
Speaker 1: well this all makes sense in a second. Um. You
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Speaker 1: know what I think as a primer before, if you're
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Speaker 1: at home listening, you can go to the YouTube site
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Speaker 1: and look up, look up like ejection seat and there's
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Speaker 1: one like slow motion on the ground zero zero ejection
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Speaker 1: from film from different angles that really shows how it
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Speaker 1: all works. It's pretty cool and um, you really get
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Speaker 1: a sense of like what they do, go up a
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Speaker 1: couple hundred feet Yeah, and quick too, very quick. Um.
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Speaker 1: This so this is this is not even my intro.
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Speaker 1: I've got an intro, Chuck. There's a guy in World
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Speaker 1: War Two who is a tail gunner on a B
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Speaker 1: seventeen flying Fortress. And this man's name was Alan McGhee,
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Speaker 1: who's staff sergeant. And if you were a tail gunner
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Speaker 1: on the B seventeen, you were basically cramped into this
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Speaker 1: little gun turret with your knees up to your chest,
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Speaker 1: your heads poking out in a little clear canopy shell. Yes,
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Speaker 1: and you had no room whatsoever to wear a parachute.
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Speaker 1: You had to keep it in the cockpit with everybody else. Well.
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Speaker 1: Alan McGee is on this B seventeen called the Snap
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Speaker 1: Crackle Pop, and they're flying on a mission over France.
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Speaker 1: Satan is there, which was also known as Flack City
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Speaker 1: because of the anti aircraft guns down on the ground.
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Speaker 1: And sure enough, the Snap Crackle Pop took some flak lost.
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Speaker 1: A wing had a couple of holes in it, and
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Speaker 1: these holes in turn put holes into McGee's parachute. So
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Speaker 1: he needs to bail out. He finds a hole that's
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Speaker 1: been blown into the side of the the Snap Crackle
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Speaker 1: Pop and jumps out at twenty thousand feet with a
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Speaker 1: parachute with holes in it, with no parachute whatsoever, because
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Speaker 1: he was like why bother. He just knew he needed
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Speaker 1: to get out of the plane quick and he later
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Speaker 1: said that he thought he had a parachute. Yes, He
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Speaker 1: fall twenty two thousand feet more than four miles to
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Speaker 1: the ground, goes right through the skylight in the satan
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Speaker 1: Asaire Trades train station and Lands and Lives. He had
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Speaker 1: a um how does that happen? He had I'll tell
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Speaker 1: you a second. He had a broken right leg, broken
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Speaker 1: right ankle, nearly severed right arm, twenty eight shrapnel wounds
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Speaker 1: from the shards of glass because he fell right through
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Speaker 1: plate glass from again twenty two thousand ft four miles
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Speaker 1: above the ground, and he lived to tell about it.
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Speaker 1: A German doctor apparently took very good care of him,
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Speaker 1: and he later on said, you know, publicly thanked the guy,
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Speaker 1: even though he was a Nazi doctor, um for saving
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Speaker 1: his life. And so I'm reading about this and this
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Speaker 1: is just astounding. I'm looking into it more and more
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Speaker 1: and more, and there's no trick. It's just physics. Um.
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Speaker 1: This physicist Dr Seth Eisenberg, he's not a physicist, he's
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Speaker 1: a trauma specialist. He said on Popular Mechanics that there's
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Speaker 1: really no magic here. That he was going. McGee was
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Speaker 1: going as fast as he would have been had he
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Speaker 1: jumped off of something like a twelve story building. Once
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Speaker 1: you reach terminal velocity, it's all the same, whether it's
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Speaker 1: four miles or whether it's twenty feet. Um, it's still
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Speaker 1: pretty spectacular that he fell four miles through the roof
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Speaker 1: of a building and survived. The point of all this
6:17
Speaker 1: is so the point was though, that he could have
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Speaker 1: fallen off a twelve story building through the plate glasses
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Speaker 1: and everyone had been like, Wow, that's pretty awesome, but
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Speaker 1: not miraculous. Yeah, compared to four miles it's not. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I got you. It's still be pretty miraculous that he survived.
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Speaker 1: Used to die, you know, twelve story building. He's pretty
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Speaker 1: banged up. Yeah, So the point is him just jumping
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Speaker 1: out of the the hole in the side of the
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Speaker 1: snap crackle pop was not that different from how you
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Speaker 1: would get out of a plane in World War Two.
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Speaker 1: You just kind of opened up the canopy and jumped
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Speaker 1: out and then you know, opened your parachute at the
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Speaker 1: appropriate height right or altitude. When that's fine with planes,
6:58
Speaker 1: propeller planes, but once jets were introduced, you can't do
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Speaker 1: that because they're going so much faster than a propeller
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Speaker 1: plane does. You can't just jump out speed of sound, dude.
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Speaker 1: So around the time the jet age began, a company
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Speaker 1: named Martin Baxter, a British aviation company, started really looking
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Speaker 1: into the idea of the ejection seat, and we have
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Speaker 1: that today thanks in large part to them. Hats off, Yeah,
7:27
Speaker 1: real men of genius. Uh So. An ejection seat, if
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Speaker 1: you don't know, just to put it very simply, is
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Speaker 1: a seat that is ejected from the aircraft ob jet,
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Speaker 1: can be a helicopter. Um. And it's a very much
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Speaker 1: a last second maybe not last second, but it's the
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Speaker 1: last ditch effort to save yourself when you know that
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Speaker 1: that aircraft is going down, right, Yeah, it's the that's
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Speaker 1: your last resort. You don't do that frivolously because number one,
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Speaker 1: airplanes are expense Yeah, they're also very dangerous when they
8:02
Speaker 1: crash land. Yeah, and you really I think it's probably
8:06
Speaker 1: bad form to scuttle your plane when you still have
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Speaker 1: control of it. Yeah, I think so. Like, hey, I
8:12
Speaker 1: wonder what this thing does. Um. And the article points
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Speaker 1: out and it's once you really read this thing, it's
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Speaker 1: really true. It's one of the most complex parts of
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Speaker 1: an aircraft. Could be thousands of parts in some of these,
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Speaker 1: and the object is to get the pilot out and
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Speaker 1: then disattached from that seat without hitting any part of
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Speaker 1: the aircraft. So like up and out in a way
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Speaker 1: out of harm's way, at which point, um you become
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Speaker 1: a parachuter. Yeah, that's that's exactly right. You want to
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Speaker 1: get the pilot into the position to just parachute down
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Speaker 1: into the ground, and it all happens and under four seconds,
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Speaker 1: and about two to three of those seconds is the
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Speaker 1: actual parachute aspect, Like the ejection part is all in
8:55
Speaker 1: about a second and a second and a half. It's
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Speaker 1: pretty pretty amazing, and we're gonna tell you how it works.
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Speaker 1: So the process of it is fairly simple. The procedure, right,
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Speaker 1: it's like, just get the pilot out of the plane
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Speaker 1: above it, out of the way of the plane crash, yeah,
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Speaker 1: and let the parachute happen to its thing. Right. But
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Speaker 1: when you look at the mechanisms involved in this, it's
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Speaker 1: extremely detailed, especially since when you had the first microprocessor
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Speaker 1: in charge of ejection seats. It's really neat. Yes, So
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Speaker 1: let's talk about ejection seats. Let's talk about the basics.
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Speaker 1: You've got. First of all, the seat, Yes, the seat
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Speaker 1: is connected. It's in the cockpit obviously, and it's attached
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Speaker 1: to rails um by by way of some rollers. So
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Speaker 1: you might think like the seats just like bolted to
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Speaker 1: the floor. It's not. It's on rollers on these rails
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Speaker 1: because those rails and rollers are going to do the
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Speaker 1: initial guidance of the chair at the proper angle out
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Speaker 1: of the aircraft. Right. You can't just go up, you
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Speaker 1: can't just go forward, you can't just go back right.
10:03
Speaker 1: And when you go up those rails, you actually have
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Speaker 1: to go at a certain amount of speed, and that
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Speaker 1: speed has to be slightly more than the aircraft is
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Speaker 1: going or else you're not going to clear the cockpit. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: So to do that, you have what's called the catapult,
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Speaker 1: which is usually a charge. Yeah, that's what gets you
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Speaker 1: going up the rails and initially out. Um. Then there
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Speaker 1: will be a secondary rocket that that shoots you up
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Speaker 1: another couple of hundred feet and clear the tail of
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Speaker 1: the plane and everything. Um. And it does it quick too,
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Speaker 1: It does it really quick. And this is all This
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Speaker 1: whole system is called an A E S and Assisted
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Speaker 1: Egress system egress meaning exit or a way out. Um,
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Speaker 1: little on the nose, but I get it. Yeah, that's
10:48
Speaker 1: the military. Um. And Uh, the canopy is you know,
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Speaker 1: if you've ever seen like a fighter jet, they've got
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Speaker 1: the clear clear canopy above them where they like wave
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Speaker 1: and like give the thumbs upside in the black Power
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Speaker 1: sign and all that stuff. Yeah, where they shoot a
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Speaker 1: bird at the Russian is in top Gun. Remember they
11:05
Speaker 1: flew right on the upside down right above them. That
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Speaker 1: seemed almost incredible. It's very incredible. Yeah, and probably not real. Well,
11:13
Speaker 1: that's what I mean, Tony Scott r I p um.
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Speaker 1: So you got the canopy, and the problem with the
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Speaker 1: canopy is it shouldn't be there when you're trying to eject.
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Speaker 1: It's right, So part of the assisted egre system is
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Speaker 1: the canopy actually uh blowing and getting the heck out
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Speaker 1: of the way. If you don't have a canopy, you
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Speaker 1: might have an escape hatch built into the roof. And um.
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Speaker 1: You do all this by pulling a lever either between
11:41
Speaker 1: your legs or by your side or in the case
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Speaker 1: of Top Gun. I looked at the clip today. It's
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Speaker 1: too two loops behind their head that they pulled. Or
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Speaker 1: sometimes you might pull a face curtain down in front
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Speaker 1: of your face, which serves two purposes. It gets the
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Speaker 1: whole system moving and protects your face. And it's not
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Speaker 1: like a veil, no, it's like it's sturdy. Yeah. Well,
12:03
Speaker 1: and I think of, like, you know what I think
12:04
Speaker 1: of when I think of curtain and planes, I think
12:06
Speaker 1: of like what they used to separate first class from
12:09
Speaker 1: from coach. We don't want this to bereta. So here's
12:12
Speaker 1: this black Lacey. He's like, I don't. I don't want
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Speaker 1: to see having to bail out. So those are some
12:18
Speaker 1: of the ways. You know, there's all different kinds of systems,
12:20
Speaker 1: but that's generally how it works. Okay, so we got
12:22
Speaker 1: the general part before we go. Any let's do a
12:25
Speaker 1: message break and let's do that. Yeah. They's about to
12:27
Speaker 1: get really good though. Mm hm. Okay, So them's the basics.
12:40
Speaker 1: We're talking about the basics. Yeah, let's get into the
12:43
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of this as it were. Yeah, and
12:46
Speaker 1: bolts will come into play actually specifics. Um. So let's
12:51
Speaker 1: talk about the seat. You've got your bucket, which is
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Speaker 1: where you sit. Um it. Also the seat comes with
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Speaker 1: survival equipment, which is kind of nice. Yeah, I licked
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Speaker 1: it up. Some survival packs have like oxygen, so if
13:02
Speaker 1: you are bailing out and you're you're not attest to
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Speaker 1: oxygen at a high altitude, you're gonna need it. Um.
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Speaker 1: They have rifles in them. Which is just cool um blankets.
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Speaker 1: What I don't get is the seat ejects from the person.
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Speaker 1: So is the safety pack this stays attest Okay, so
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Speaker 1: you're still in a sitting position with this thing attached
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Speaker 1: to you or it's a test your back Okay, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I was confused by that too. I'm glad you took
13:27
Speaker 1: the time. Um, we cover the canopy. The catapult is
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Speaker 1: obviously what initiates it, and it's operated with, like you said,
13:35
Speaker 1: ballistic cartridge. There's a lot of explosions going. You're riding
13:38
Speaker 1: a bullet right then, yeah, pretty much, then you're going
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Speaker 1: to catapult the rails. You got your drug parachute, which
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Speaker 1: is a small parachute five two to five ft in
13:47
Speaker 1: diameter that it initially pops out to uh, sort of
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Speaker 1: balance you and make sure you're not just flying all
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Speaker 1: over the place and slow you down a little bit,
13:56
Speaker 1: right because I mean, if you're going in at even
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Speaker 1: a slight angle at the speed of sound, possibly, yes,
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Speaker 1: you need to slow down kind of quick. And the
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Speaker 1: drug parachute is just that little one like uh, then
14:09
Speaker 1: the drags that's exactly what it is. And sometimes you
14:13
Speaker 1: know how they'll have like a small one, and then
14:14
Speaker 1: a big one. They have that too on injection seats
14:17
Speaker 1: as well. And then the drug parachute also very commonly,
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Speaker 1: um will trip the larger parachute too after a certain
14:24
Speaker 1: speed is reached. That's right. Um, what else, man, You've
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Speaker 1: got your environmental sensor, which will get into how all
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Speaker 1: this works. Um, But that is a device that tracks
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Speaker 1: airspeed and altitude. Um, it doesn't just shoot you up
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Speaker 1: and say I hope it's hope it's okay up there
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Speaker 1: right exactly? And then it also depending on the readings
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Speaker 1: it gets for your air speed and altitude, it'll it'll
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Speaker 1: trip like a certain type of sequence. So like if
14:52
Speaker 1: you're at a very high altitude, there'll be a certain sequence.
14:55
Speaker 1: If you're at a low altitude but going a very
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Speaker 1: fast speed, there will be a certain sequence, and so on.
15:01
Speaker 1: And there's a car called modes of ejection. Well we
15:04
Speaker 1: might as well go and cover that. It's Um, there's
15:07
Speaker 1: something called and I had to look this up. It
15:10
Speaker 1: was named for physicists Honree Peito, but um, everyone calls
15:16
Speaker 1: them uh pedd or pidot tubes when it really should
15:23
Speaker 1: be Peto tubes because he was French. But these are
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Speaker 1: when the when the sequence begin, it travels up the
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Speaker 1: rails and exposes these tubes and they measure air pressure
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Speaker 1: and the differences in pressure to determine like how fast
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Speaker 1: you're going and like which of these modes to enact
15:41
Speaker 1: that we're talking about. So that that's the that's part
15:44
Speaker 1: of the environmental center, and it sends that information of
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Speaker 1: the recovery sequencer, which is basically the chip that controls
15:50
Speaker 1: the process. That's right. Um, So what are the three modes? Well,
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Speaker 1: there's low altitude low speed, which is less than two
15:57
Speaker 1: fifty knots at less than fifteen thousand feet. No need
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Speaker 1: for a drug parachute. You barely even need an injection
16:03
Speaker 1: seed at that point, you know. Um. There's mode too,
16:07
Speaker 1: which is low altitude high speed for when you're like,
16:11
Speaker 1: you know, Maverick or something like that, just going really
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Speaker 1: fast but low UM. And then there's high altitude any speed,
16:20
Speaker 1: known as the scariest mode. Right. And so the modes
16:24
Speaker 1: are all based on you'll notice two things altitude and
16:29
Speaker 1: um speed velocity right. Um. And you put these things
16:35
Speaker 1: together and you create a graph and inside the graph,
16:41
Speaker 1: inside the the arc that's formed that's called the envelope,
16:47
Speaker 1: and anything inside the envelope is um safety. Like it's
16:52
Speaker 1: been proven, it's tested that if you follow this certain
16:56
Speaker 1: sense of certain sequence of events for this mode, within
17:01
Speaker 1: this altitude and this air speed, you're gonna most likely
17:04
Speaker 1: be fine. That's right. If you go outside of that,
17:07
Speaker 1: you are what's known as pushing the envelope. Is that
17:10
Speaker 1: where that came from? That's awesome? It is. I thought
17:14
Speaker 1: that was when you, like, we're super cool during negotiations
17:17
Speaker 1: and you would just write down what you wanted and
17:19
Speaker 1: push the envelope across the table. That's pushing your luck. Okay, wow,
17:24
Speaker 1: I love that. You know me and word origins. Yeah,
17:26
Speaker 1: I thought you'd like that when I saw it, and
17:28
Speaker 1: I was like, Jack's gonna love it. So let's back
17:32
Speaker 1: up a bit and uh start with with the bailout.
17:36
Speaker 1: Your planes not doing well, you want to eject planes.
17:40
Speaker 1: Not your plane is sick. You want to eject and
17:43
Speaker 1: you pull the ejection handle. That sets off what we've
17:46
Speaker 1: already talked about, that first explosion to catapult you up
17:50
Speaker 1: the rails and into the air. And then there is
17:52
Speaker 1: an under seat rocket motor that actually propels you even further.
17:58
Speaker 1: And when you watch this thing in slow motion. It's
18:00
Speaker 1: you know, serious rocket propelled action going on under your butt. Yeah,
18:05
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's two stages, like the catapult and then
18:08
Speaker 1: the rocket, but it's all in the same source. But yeah,
18:12
Speaker 1: it's basically shot shooting you. So you go off on
18:14
Speaker 1: a bullet and then a rocket. Yeah, that's what happens
18:18
Speaker 1: when you're ejecting in like you said, within the first
18:22
Speaker 1: half to one and a half seconds. Yeah, that's what
18:24
Speaker 1: all this happens in the canopy obviously has been jettisoned
18:27
Speaker 1: at this point, and that's a really cool thing to Like,
18:30
Speaker 1: these things are have to functions canopy, so they're bolted
18:33
Speaker 1: in there, and the way they're they're ejected as the
18:37
Speaker 1: bolts are blown by little tiny explosive charges, right, that's
18:40
Speaker 1: called lifting the canopy. Um, the bolts will blow and
18:43
Speaker 1: the cannon people start to fly off, but then there's
18:46
Speaker 1: another charge and another explosion towards the front that just
18:49
Speaker 1: shoots it off in another direction away from you as
18:52
Speaker 1: you're ejecting. All this is just so cool, man, how
18:55
Speaker 1: fast it happens, how complicated it all is. Yeah, because
18:58
Speaker 1: think about that, Like the computer sequencers still needs to
19:02
Speaker 1: know what mode to follow, so like when that canopy
19:06
Speaker 1: is starting to blow, it's taking the data readings and
19:09
Speaker 1: deciding all this is going on in like a second,
19:11
Speaker 1: a tenth of a seconded um. So lifting the canopy
19:15
Speaker 1: is one way you can still become injured. You can
19:17
Speaker 1: still run into the canopy, um I, just from blowing
19:21
Speaker 1: the bolts. So there's another mode, um or another means
19:24
Speaker 1: of getting rid of the canopy. And that's just shattering it. Yeah,
19:27
Speaker 1: that's when it basically explodes. And uh, it's like you've
19:30
Speaker 1: got chicken wire, but the chicken wire is explosive. Yeah,
19:34
Speaker 1: just just evaporate. Yeah, well done, evaporate the slipstream. Just
19:39
Speaker 1: makes it go by by really quickly. Um So for
19:43
Speaker 1: all intents and purposes. Uh. And then we also mentioned
19:47
Speaker 1: earlier if there is no canopy, there will be an
19:49
Speaker 1: explosive hatch that basically that's the same thing that seems
19:52
Speaker 1: the least safe to me, why because you can't see
19:55
Speaker 1: through it. An explosive hatch makes me think of like
19:58
Speaker 1: some really heavy thick steel that, yes, you can't see through,
20:03
Speaker 1: and that is just really a hole in another bit
20:06
Speaker 1: of heavy thick steel that you might bump into on
20:09
Speaker 1: your way out, like like an escape hatch from a submarine.
20:12
Speaker 1: That's what I think of when I think of a
20:14
Speaker 1: hatch like that on a plane. You know, give me
20:18
Speaker 1: a shattering canopy. You want it to dissolve above your head. Evaporate, evaporate. Alright,
20:26
Speaker 1: So then once you're out from the rails, uh, that
20:29
Speaker 1: secondary the rocket's gonna take you depends on your weight
20:33
Speaker 1: A hundred to two hundred feet up to safe safely
20:36
Speaker 1: clear you and um, I wish we had more recent
20:38
Speaker 1: stats than this, but we have one from that said
20:43
Speaker 1: that they had a success rate or I saw that
20:46
Speaker 1: four d and sixty three injections. I saw that that's
20:48
Speaker 1: a kind of standard for study from like I think
20:51
Speaker 1: two thousand six or something like that, and they found
20:53
Speaker 1: about eighty nine point four. And the bad news is
20:57
Speaker 1: the other ten percent means you've probably died. Yeah, you know,
21:02
Speaker 1: so it's either success or you die. Yes, I think
21:05
Speaker 1: that's pretty much the I think saving your life through
21:09
Speaker 1: the correct series is successful. Like if you're injured or whatever,
21:13
Speaker 1: I think they still generally count that as success. Um.
21:17
Speaker 1: So where are we man? So we're at the drug parachute.
21:20
Speaker 1: The drug gun fires a metal slug and it pulls
21:24
Speaker 1: out this little drug parachute. And then like we said,
21:27
Speaker 1: then there's the secondary shoot that I think the drug
21:30
Speaker 1: nnects that, right, yeah, the second they like the main shoot. UM,
21:35
Speaker 1: so you get the main shoot out before this happens. Though.
21:40
Speaker 1: Think about this when you are shot out on a
21:43
Speaker 1: bullet and then on a rocket and you're going up
21:47
Speaker 1: to I don't know, mark two, mark three, MAK one
21:51
Speaker 1: is seven. UM. That's speed of sound like supersonic travel. Um.
21:58
Speaker 1: And we have planes that can go a lot faster
22:00
Speaker 1: than that. When you exit the plane like that, UM,
22:04
Speaker 1: it's very easy for your seat to start to tumble
22:07
Speaker 1: and move around and spin or your limbs. Let's say,
22:11
Speaker 1: well we'll get to that. Just the seat itself. If
22:13
Speaker 1: everything's going encoding, the plant plant can still tumble and
22:16
Speaker 1: and this the wind resistance it meets can just push
22:20
Speaker 1: it around in all sorts of weird angles. So there's
22:22
Speaker 1: something called a Vernier rocket, right, and it's it is
22:28
Speaker 1: a rocket that just kind of fires like um, remember
22:31
Speaker 1: on Apollo thirteen when they were um like shooting off
22:35
Speaker 1: the little booster rockets like need correct the yaw and
22:39
Speaker 1: all that and pitch. That's what this rocket does. UM.
22:44
Speaker 1: Or these rockets, I should say. It stabilizes the seat
22:48
Speaker 1: and keeps it from spinning and tumbling and makes it
22:50
Speaker 1: stay up and down exactly so it knows what it's doing,
22:54
Speaker 1: just like your smartphone. Oh, yes, that what the compass
22:59
Speaker 1: thing is. Yeah really well, I mean yeah, plus when
23:03
Speaker 1: you tilted, it knows to go sideways. And yeah, I
23:06
Speaker 1: mean I'm sure that or I hope the dejection seats
23:09
Speaker 1: have a little more advanced systems. But yeah, gyroscope. Yeah, okay,
23:14
Speaker 1: I never thought about that. Uh, maybe not a gyroscope,
23:17
Speaker 1: but something that functions in that way. People are like,
23:19
Speaker 1: that's not a gyroscope. We'll find out, Yeah, we sure,
23:22
Speaker 1: well many times over. Okay, so Chuck, let's talk about
23:26
Speaker 1: the physics of all this. Well, first we got to
23:29
Speaker 1: cover the seat man separator motor. And that's actually once
23:33
Speaker 1: you're in the air, you don't you're you don't want
23:36
Speaker 1: you can't land in the seat. They wanted to get
23:38
Speaker 1: you out of the seat, and that's accomplished by the
23:41
Speaker 1: seat man motor separator. Yeah. This motor dease basically goes
23:45
Speaker 1: we're and detaches the seat from you and you're you've
23:49
Speaker 1: got your parachute one, You've got your survival pack still,
23:52
Speaker 1: but the seat just kind of falls away to Earth
23:55
Speaker 1: and you just um slowly parachute down and land and
24:00
Speaker 1: if you're keptain scott O Grady, Yeah, then you spend
24:06
Speaker 1: the next five days evading serbs. That's right, successfully successfully.
24:13
Speaker 1: So physics my favorite topic. I know you love physics. Uh.
24:17
Speaker 1: Newton's second law of emotion comes into play here obviously
24:20
Speaker 1: because um force and acceleration of the crew member. Really,
24:24
Speaker 1: you know, that's how you're gonna live or die. Yeah,
24:27
Speaker 1: because when you exited plane, you get smacked by the wind,
24:31
Speaker 1: that's right. I mean, you're going faster than the speed
24:35
Speaker 1: of sound, and while you're normally operating the plane, the
24:39
Speaker 1: plane's taking it on the chin for you. You're not
24:42
Speaker 1: feeling this force of gravity nearly as much as you
24:46
Speaker 1: are when you're no longer surrounded by the plane and
24:50
Speaker 1: you're just exposed up there in the atmosphere. That's right.
24:53
Speaker 1: So Newton's second law of emotion states the acceleration of
24:56
Speaker 1: an object depends on the force acting upon it and
24:59
Speaker 1: the mass of the object. Force equals mass times acceleration.
25:02
Speaker 1: In this case, the mass is the mass of the
25:06
Speaker 1: human pilot and the chair, right, and uh, the force Uh,
25:12
Speaker 1: I don't know. Accelerations measured in gees right, So one
25:16
Speaker 1: G equals the the amount of one the the amount
25:21
Speaker 1: of the Earth's gravity right now, right. And so let's say, um,
25:27
Speaker 1: let's say we're a hundred and eighty pound pilot at
25:31
Speaker 1: sea level, we weigh a hundred and eighty pounds. That's
25:33
Speaker 1: one g um when we're going t gs and so
25:37
Speaker 1: on up to say twenty g s I believe, is
25:40
Speaker 1: what the an ejection seat is like the best are
25:43
Speaker 1: developed for At twenty g's hundred and eighty pounds, it
25:49
Speaker 1: feels like thirty pounds. That's the force that you encounter
25:54
Speaker 1: when you eject thirty pounds, All of a sudden of
25:58
Speaker 1: force is being exerted on your body. Yeah, and keeping
26:01
Speaker 1: in mind that one g of acceleration is equal to
26:03
Speaker 1: thirty two per scond. Yes, And it all depends on
26:06
Speaker 1: how much we weigh, like, that's how you figure out
26:08
Speaker 1: the mass you in the chair. That's the big one. Also,
26:11
Speaker 1: the the chair needs to know how fast to go
26:14
Speaker 1: because it has to go slightly faster than the plane,
26:16
Speaker 1: like I said, so it can clear it. That's amazing, Yeah,
26:19
Speaker 1: it is. But when So when you reject and you
26:24
Speaker 1: suddenly encounter twenty g s, which is the upper limits
26:27
Speaker 1: of human Um, what's the word I'm looking for? Tolerance? Um,
26:35
Speaker 1: A lot of really bad things can happen to you.
26:38
Speaker 1: That's right, and we know this thanks for our buddy
26:40
Speaker 1: Colonel step Yeah. Remember he used to have read outs
26:43
Speaker 1: from the rocket sled and man he had some crazy
26:46
Speaker 1: stuff happened to him. So what's the formula? UM speed
26:50
Speaker 1: equals acceleration times time plus initial speed or v F
26:57
Speaker 1: equals a T plus the I. Yes, So think about this. Okay,
27:02
Speaker 1: what we just said is that, UM, we understand the force,
27:05
Speaker 1: which is when you go up, you are suddenly exposed
27:09
Speaker 1: to that lateral force, hit in the face with that
27:14
Speaker 1: windy um, and you're also being pushed out and upward.
27:21
Speaker 1: So I think you said that in some cases, within
27:24
Speaker 1: the first second and a half you are up two feet,
27:29
Speaker 1: So I think you said earlier something like you within
27:33
Speaker 1: a second you are you go from sitting in the
27:36
Speaker 1: plane to being up about two feet, So that means
27:39
Speaker 1: you're traveling twot a second upward. So you're being pushed
27:45
Speaker 1: up like that while you're being exposed to speeds of
27:50
Speaker 1: upwards of seven twenty g's of force. UM. And all
27:57
Speaker 1: of this is happening to your poor little body, so
28:00
Speaker 1: a lot of really bad things can happen to it. Um,
28:04
Speaker 1: first of all, First and foremost, I think the number
28:06
Speaker 1: one injury from ejections is spine compression, oh man, Because
28:12
Speaker 1: you're you're being pushed upward at a two ft a
28:15
Speaker 1: second UM. That's a lot of force exerted on your
28:18
Speaker 1: spinal column. So modern um ejection seats have things like
28:23
Speaker 1: leg restraints, back restraints, restraints, and then that face curtain
28:28
Speaker 1: restrain your head, and you were forced into a completely
28:32
Speaker 1: up and down sitting position so that your vertebra are
28:36
Speaker 1: stacked perfectly on top of one another, because any kind
28:40
Speaker 1: of slip or any kind of angle leads to a
28:42
Speaker 1: slip disc very easily. UM. And there's a long standing legend.
28:48
Speaker 1: I couldn't verify that in the US Air Force, after
28:51
Speaker 1: two or three ejections you're grounded for life because the
28:55
Speaker 1: spinal compressions just basically used you up. I don't know,
28:58
Speaker 1: I didn't see that it was true anywhere, but it's
29:01
Speaker 1: an old legend. Well, at the very least, you're not
29:03
Speaker 1: very good pilot, so they're like, yeah, maybe we should
29:05
Speaker 1: around them. Or you're like three quarters your height that
29:09
Speaker 1: you were when you enlisted because the final compressions, you know,
29:13
Speaker 1: short now. So that's the number one I believe UM
29:15
Speaker 1: injury that comes from ejection. There's also something with the
29:20
Speaker 1: horrific name limb flail. So you're secured in your seat,
29:26
Speaker 1: your arms, your legs, your head, you're supposed to be
29:29
Speaker 1: totally immobile in that first couple of seconds, especially until
29:31
Speaker 1: your parachute opens and you slow down and everything. If
29:36
Speaker 1: your arm gets loose. Have you ever seen a dog
29:40
Speaker 1: with its head sticking out of a car window on
29:43
Speaker 1: a highway and it has real long, floppy ears, Yeah,
29:45
Speaker 1: which is very dangerous. It's not something you should do
29:48
Speaker 1: to your dog. It's bad for your dog. Developed cauliflowerer.
29:50
Speaker 1: It's a bad thing to do. Get things in their eyes.
29:53
Speaker 1: That's going like thirty to sixty miles an hour. We're
29:58
Speaker 1: talking in arm a human r going more than seven
30:02
Speaker 1: fifty miles. When it gets loose, what you have is
30:05
Speaker 1: called limb flail, and what you have are completely shattered bones,
30:10
Speaker 1: dislocated shoulders. Um, that's a bad jam. Or just imagine
30:14
Speaker 1: going down the highway at like rolled on your window
30:18
Speaker 1: and then quickly to stick your arms. Yes, yes, and
30:21
Speaker 1: multiply that times you know whatever. Um, so that's another
30:26
Speaker 1: type of injury limb flail. Um. There's wind blast, which
30:31
Speaker 1: so they tested this on chimps of course, and um
30:35
Speaker 1: it turns out that you can get third degree burns,
30:37
Speaker 1: severe third degree burns just from the wind at um
30:42
Speaker 1: mock one point seven. Being exposed to that peak one
30:46
Speaker 1: point seven mack one point seven for one second can
30:50
Speaker 1: give you severe third degree burns. Uh. And then there's tumbling,
30:54
Speaker 1: which you might overlook, but think about this. Remember when
30:58
Speaker 1: um know, the real math, No, the real life guys. No, uh,
31:05
Speaker 1: the dude, oh man, No, the guy who jumped out
31:09
Speaker 1: of the space capsule recently. You know the guy, yeah,
31:14
Speaker 1: Felix bomb Gardener. Yeah, I can't believe I forgot that. Um.
31:20
Speaker 1: The the when he jumped out, he started to tumble,
31:24
Speaker 1: remember he started going in over end a first. No.
31:27
Speaker 1: And the reason that that is really really bad is
31:29
Speaker 1: because you can build up centrifugal force of your for
31:34
Speaker 1: your blood and it pushes it outward to your extremities,
31:37
Speaker 1: meaning your heart doesn't have any blood to pump any longer,
31:41
Speaker 1: so you can die very quickly. I've seen between two
31:44
Speaker 1: hundred and four hundred rotations per minute proves fatal to humans. Man,
31:49
Speaker 1: how did that bomb grown? Your guy pull that off?
31:52
Speaker 1: I don't know. That was pretty awesome. Yeah, and hey,
31:55
Speaker 1: our own Discovery channel covered that live. Remember, Yeah, that
31:58
Speaker 1: was huge. It was very cool. That first shot, Dude,
32:01
Speaker 1: I like, I can't look at that when it just
32:03
Speaker 1: falls out of it at his perspective shot when he
32:05
Speaker 1: was just like all right, I'm jumping out of something
32:08
Speaker 1: from space. Yeah, that was amazing. I remember, um, you,
32:11
Speaker 1: me and I were coming back from some trip or
32:12
Speaker 1: whatever and we just happened to be in the airport
32:15
Speaker 1: when I remembered it was going on. I'm like, oh, yeah,
32:18
Speaker 1: we should watch this, and ended up standing there watching
32:20
Speaker 1: like one of the most amazing things I've ever seen
32:23
Speaker 1: in my entire life. Yeah, I mean, that was just
32:25
Speaker 1: an amazing thing to see. Yeah, and I bet you
32:27
Speaker 1: he wants to top it. I'm sure he's like high
32:29
Speaker 1: or still. Yeah. And do you remember the guy who
32:32
Speaker 1: did that in like the like nineteen sixty or the
32:35
Speaker 1: late fifties. Oh, he did it like in this exposed
32:40
Speaker 1: weather balloon wearing like a high altitude a halo mask
32:44
Speaker 1: and air supply and everything, and you've seen footage of it, yes,
32:50
Speaker 1: but he ended up being like the whole program director
32:52
Speaker 1: for Felix baum Gardner's jump, Like he tapped him because
32:56
Speaker 1: he's the only other guy who's done anything like that,
32:58
Speaker 1: and this guy did it in like the eight fifties,
33:00
Speaker 1: I think, so he was literally the only person he
33:02
Speaker 1: could say, what's it? Like? Manly? He said, it sucks
33:06
Speaker 1: and it's awesome. Apparently he had like a hole in
33:08
Speaker 1: his glove or something like that that they had he
33:10
Speaker 1: told them back on the ground what was going on,
33:13
Speaker 1: they would have called off the mission. And no, the
33:16
Speaker 1: other guy and he just didn't tell him. So that's
33:22
Speaker 1: how Felix bond Gardner works. Alright, Ejection Seats, you've got
33:27
Speaker 1: anything else? I don't have anything else. Yeah, that one
33:28
Speaker 1: was really cool. I thought, Yeah, very complex thing going
33:31
Speaker 1: on very quickly, and watch that super slow mo and
33:35
Speaker 1: then it shows it in regular time. It's pretty neat. Okay,
33:38
Speaker 1: So since we don't have anything else, um, we would
33:41
Speaker 1: advise you to go onto the how Stuff Works website
33:44
Speaker 1: and check out ejection Seats. Type that into the search bar,
33:46
Speaker 1: and since I said search bar, it is time for
33:49
Speaker 1: listener mail. Yeah, I'm gonna call this b FF. Hey, guys,
33:55
Speaker 1: I've been listening for about six months and catching up
33:58
Speaker 1: on most of your old shows. In that time. I
34:00
Speaker 1: was introduced to your podcast by my best since sixth
34:04
Speaker 1: grade friend, who was also a serious fan. I admit
34:07
Speaker 1: that it took me a few episodes to warm to
34:09
Speaker 1: your podcast, and now I feel a bit cheapish for
34:12
Speaker 1: ever doubting my friends recommendation. Not only is she one
34:15
Speaker 1: of the smartest people I've ever met, She's one of
34:18
Speaker 1: my oldest friends. It knows me better than anyone. We
34:20
Speaker 1: have a long history of directing each other to many
34:22
Speaker 1: fabulous and geekye pursuits, but stuff you should know, maybe
34:26
Speaker 1: the best of them all. And I have to say,
34:28
Speaker 1: stiff competition. You're up against Tolkin, the X Files, Star Trek,
34:34
Speaker 1: epic rat battles of History, Dune. She says, we talk
34:39
Speaker 1: all of those. Wow, I mean I see the rat battles, sure,
34:43
Speaker 1: Dune maybe, but tolkan X Files Star Trek. Although I
34:47
Speaker 1: don't like Star Trek, you don't like Start check the movie,
34:51
Speaker 1: the TV shows, none of it. People are gonna be shocked.
34:54
Speaker 1: I've never seen a single Star Trek episode in my life.
34:56
Speaker 1: I think I did when I was a kid. Now,
34:58
Speaker 1: I'll bet I would like it as an adult now.
35:01
Speaker 1: And I saw the Wrath of con Yeah, I saw
35:04
Speaker 1: that finally. That was good. And then I saw the
35:08
Speaker 1: the first of the new ones, but not the one
35:10
Speaker 1: that just came out. I saw the one that just
35:12
Speaker 1: came out. It's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, I'll get
35:14
Speaker 1: into it. It's just not my universe. I'm Star Wars guy.
35:17
Speaker 1: Not that you can't be, you know, get over this
35:20
Speaker 1: this obstacle, this arbitrary and totally unnecessary wall between people
35:26
Speaker 1: who like Star Trek and Star Wars. Uh. It's it's
35:35
Speaker 1: not that I think there should be a wall. I
35:37
Speaker 1: just never got into Star Trek as long as it's
35:39
Speaker 1: you're not hating on Star trekah, No, of course, not
35:42
Speaker 1: ak trick. All right, this has been like kind of
35:46
Speaker 1: a geeky episode, have you noticed? Sure? Back to the
35:51
Speaker 1: email from Catherine. A couple of months ago, my friend
35:55
Speaker 1: came to visit for a weekend and we were discussing
35:57
Speaker 1: the podcast. Both made similar comments about why enjoyed it
36:00
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36:02
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36:05
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36:27
Speaker 1: and keep up a good work explaining like the universe
36:29
Speaker 1: and everything. Best Catherine with the k R y N, Well,
36:35
Speaker 1: thanks a lot. And she didn't say what her friend's
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Speaker 1: name was with I thought it was quite sounds like
36:39
Speaker 1: a pretty bad friend, So Catherine's friend, hats off to
36:42
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36:44
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37:02
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