From a zero-zero perspective (meaning that the seat is at zero altitude and travelling at zero knots), the seat would go somewhere between 200 and 300 feet in the air depending on the seat Mk. and the occupant’s weight.
Ejection Seat FAQ
For nearly 70 years, Martin-Baker has been the world leader in the design and manufacture of ejection and crashworthy seats. Each its own complex system, there’s a lot going on behind every seat – have a question about our passion? Hopefully, we can answer it below.
This is a difficult question to answer – it’s heavily dependent on the type of seat in question as well as the total number of seats ordered, but somewhere in the £100,000 – £200,000 range is fairly accurate as a ballpark figure.
Yes, after pulling the ejection handle the entire seat will eject from the cockpit and the pilot will be kept in the seat until the seat knows that it is at a sensible height and speed to then deploy the parachute and initiate the “seat-man separation”; all of the modern Mk. ejection seats perform this without any action required from the pilot.
There are three options available dependant on the aircraft type:
- Canopy Jettison – where the entire canopy is blown from the aircraft leaving the seat clearance to eject from the cockpit,
- Through Canopy – where the seat is fitted with canopy spikes (canopy breakers) above the headbox to punch through the glass canopy,
- CSS/CFS – where charges are fitted to the canopy that are integrated with the seat to fire and shatter the glass upon initiation of the ejection handle.
There’s no fixed number – each individual is unique, as is the ejection that they endure. After ejection, a pilot will be given a full medical evaluation and it is down to that medical professional to advise whether it is recommended that the pilot continues to fly or not.
No, not anymore! Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Martin-Baker used live volunteer test pilots for both zero-zero ejection tests as well as live ejection tests out of a flying aircraft (our famous Gloster Meteor test aircraft). Benny Lynch carried out 31 live ejection tests, of which 17 were out of a moving aircraft. Today, instead, we use highly sensitive, high-tech test mannequins for all of our tests.
Martin-Baker is the world-leading designer and manufacturer of ejection seats; we own over 53% of the global ejection seat market and this is forecast to grow in the coming years.
There are over 17,000 Martin-Baker ejection seats in service today in 54 different aircraft types across 84 countries and these numbers are ever growing.
No part of the ejection seat can be reused or salvaged from a seat once it has been used to eject. The Martin-Baker ejection seat is designed to stand the test of time and each part of the seat has a servicing life to ensure that the seat will perform when it’s needed; it is not designed for multiple use.
Martin-Baker was established as Martin Aircraft Works in 1929 by Sir James Martin and we initially designed and manufactured aircraft (The MB1, MB2, MB3 & MB5). The company later changed to Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd. at which point ejection seats became Sir James’ focus, with the first ejection seat tests occurring in 1946 and the first life saved in 1949.
About
Contact
Interested in finding out some more about the world’s leader in ejection seats? Get in touch with Martin-Baker today.
From a zero-zero perspective (meaning that the seat is at zero altitude and travelling at zero knots), the seat would go somewhere between 200 and 300 feet in the air depending on the seat Mk. and the occupant’s weight.
This is a difficult question to answer – it’s heavily dependent on the type of seat in question as well as the total number of seats ordered, but somewhere in the £100,000 – £200,000 range is fairly accurate as a ballpark figure.
Yes, after pulling the ejection handle the entire seat will eject from the cockpit and the pilot will be kept in the seat until the seat knows that it is at a sensible height and speed to then deploy the parachute and initiate the “seat-man separation”; all of the modern Mk. ejection seats perform this without any action required from the pilot.
There are three options available dependant on the aircraft type:
- Canopy Jettison – where the entire canopy is blown from the aircraft leaving the seat clearance to eject from the cockpit,
- Through Canopy – where the seat is fitted with canopy spikes (canopy breakers) above the headbox to punch through the glass canopy,
- CSS/CFS – where charges are fitted to the canopy that are integrated with the seat to fire and shatter the glass upon initiation of the ejection handle.
There’s no fixed number – each individual is unique, as is the ejection that they endure. After ejection, a pilot will be given a full medical evaluation and it is down to that medical professional to advise whether it is recommended that the pilot continues to fly or not.
No, not anymore! Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Martin-Baker used live volunteer test pilots for both zero-zero ejection tests as well as live ejection tests out of a flying aircraft (our famous Gloster Meteor test aircraft). Benny Lynch carried out 31 live ejection tests, of which 17 were out of a moving aircraft. Today, instead, we use highly sensitive, high-tech test mannequins for all of our tests.
Martin-Baker is the world-leading designer and manufacturer of ejection seats; we own over 53% of the global ejection seat market and this is forecast to grow in the coming years.
There are over 17,000 Martin-Baker ejection seats in service today in 54 different aircraft types across 84 countries and these numbers are ever growing.
No part of the ejection seat can be reused or salvaged from a seat once it has been used to eject. The Martin-Baker ejection seat is designed to stand the test of time and each part of the seat has a servicing life to ensure that the seat will perform when it’s needed; it is not designed for multiple use.
Martin-Baker was established as Martin Aircraft Works in 1929 by Sir James Martin and we initially designed and manufactured aircraft (The MB1, MB2, MB3 & MB5). The company later changed to Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd. at which point ejection seats became Sir James’ focus, with the first ejection seat tests occurring in 1946 and the first life saved in 1949.
About
Contact
Interested in finding out some more about the world’s leader in ejection seats? Get in touch with Martin-Baker today.