Maintainers

My fascination with Martin-Baker ejection seats started at the age of 15 when I was shown around an armoury as part of a tour of RAF Gutersloh to help me decide what trade I would choose. Upon meeting the armourers and seeing the work they did I knew this was what I wanted to do. Fast forward to 1992 I was posted to RAF Coltishall Arm Eng Flight. The seat bay was a place you were selected to work after demonstrating a high attention to detail in the other bays. After serving my time in various bays I was finally offered a place to work on Jaguars Martin-Baker MK9 seats, I got to be part of seeing several mods undertaken including the NVG mods. At least one seat I serviced was successfully operated while I was there. I was promoted to CPL and posted to XV(r) SQN at RAF Lossiemouth where I got to pull and fit MK10 seats in Tornados. The seats were a joy to work on, though not the Command ejection selector and canopy jack head release piston. After three years there I was asked to return to Colt to help implement the zero zero mod to the MK9 seat which I was honoured to do. Since leaving my obsession hasn’t ceased my office chair is a Martin-Baker operators chair from a Nimrod which will be replaced with the MK10 seat sitting in my conservatory once I have made a stand for it.