Of course air forces wouldn’t have to worry about this kind of thing if fighter aircraft needed little key fobs to start them, but then I suppose they’d just make a scene where the downed pilot would jump the enemy pilot and steal his airplane keys.
I was more impressed by his ejection at Mach 10+ without getting his hair mussed.
I ran some rough numbers and I think they may have done the math on that one. If he was up at 130,000 feet, the dynamic pressure at Mach 10 (probably around 3000 m/sec at that altitude) might translate to a Mach 1.2 ejection at 35,000 feet or so. But if he was only at 100,000 feet, Mach 10 would’ve been like a sea-level supersonic ejection and he’d have broken lots of bones.
Of course either way, he was looking at a hypersonic atmospheric “re-entry”.
From the SR-71 Pilot Manual, your estimate might be about right.
As for the movie, it was entertaining. In reality, they probably would’ve sent a B-2 to drop a couple MOPs (Massive Ordinance Penetrators).
I’m not interested enough to run the numbers, except to say that the best ejection seats are good only to 600 KEAS: much above that, and your likelihood of survival goes way down. In the terrible F-22 accident in March 2009, the pilot ejected at somewhere around 760 KEAS, and died shortly afterwards (I think he was alive when the rescue team got there but didn’t make it to the base hospital). Of course, he had just about as bad of a Hobson’s choice as you can get – slam into the desert floor still in the airplane, or eject at an essentially unsurvivable flight condition. Poor bastard; he was basically dead as soon as he started the maneuver.
As far as an escape capsule goes, has there ever been one that actually worked worth a damn? The B-1A’s certainly didn’t (and there are so many lessons learned from that fully avoidable accident it would fill a book).
I haven’t seen the movie – despite being an airplane nut and aerospace engineer, I hated the first one and have no interest in seeing the sequel – but I kind of like the idea that Mav is killed in the Mach 10 mishap and the rest of the movie is his journey through some kind of Purgatory, trying to make amends for his prior personal and professional failures. But I seriously doubt Hollywood could think coherently enough to pull off a mindfuck like that 😉
There were successful F-111 pod ejections. I used to work with an F-111 ejection survivor. He said they weren’t always successful. He said the rescue guys liked the ejection pods because it made recovering the bodies easier.
During the crash of an XB-70, one of the pilots was able to eject using the unique seat that closed its clamshell doors around the pilot before blasting free. He was severely injured when the doors closed on his arm, but survived. His copilot didn’t make it out. In any case, the plane was subsonic at the time.
Speculation is an ejection pod ala FB-111.
The late great pilot Bob Hoover (Jimmy Doolittle said he was the best stick and rudder man who ever lived) was shot down in WWII and escaped in a FW-190. I’m not certain what fighter he was flying when he was shot down. One story says it was a Spitfire.
“Entertaining but improbable” is the top score Hollywood can achieve with any sort of action movie. So your assessment amounts to a five-star review.
-Pilot and serious space nerd, still seething over the Apollo 13 movie with LIVE SHOTS OF ACTORS IN MICROGRAVITY losing the visual effects Oscar to a goddamn CGI talking pig.
The action movie I want to see is The Battle of Lake Changjin, what is characterized as a Chinese propaganda movie about their forces entering the Korean War, sending the UN forces into headlong retreat.
It might be Communist propaganda, but it takes the perspective that their forces fought heroically in the face of enormous casualties.
I think an English-language release of this movie should be titled, “Saving Private Ry-Uhn” starring an actor named Ma Da-Mon.
It was entertaining. Typical fare that is watchable if you have a willing sense of disbelief. I did enjoy no wokeness though. And seeing Iceman on screen was a pleasant surprise.
Trivia – I was in Army basic in May 1987 and they marched us down to the base theatre to see the original.
I might have asked to see the IG after being frog marched to see the first TOPGUN. Of course, you probably didn’t even know what that was at the time. It also would have been some diversion from having been thrown to the dogs.
Hey, some things happen more often than you’d think (which would be never).
The only pilot who departed in a Mustang and came back in a Focke-Wulf.
Of course air forces wouldn’t have to worry about this kind of thing if fighter aircraft needed little key fobs to start them, but then I suppose they’d just make a scene where the downed pilot would jump the enemy pilot and steal his airplane keys.
I was more impressed by his ejection at Mach 10+ without getting his hair mussed.
I ran some rough numbers and I think they may have done the math on that one. If he was up at 130,000 feet, the dynamic pressure at Mach 10 (probably around 3000 m/sec at that altitude) might translate to a Mach 1.2 ejection at 35,000 feet or so. But if he was only at 100,000 feet, Mach 10 would’ve been like a sea-level supersonic ejection and he’d have broken lots of bones.
Of course either way, he was looking at a hypersonic atmospheric “re-entry”.
From the SR-71 Pilot Manual, your estimate might be about right.
https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/5/5-9.php
As for the movie, it was entertaining. In reality, they probably would’ve sent a B-2 to drop a couple MOPs (Massive Ordinance Penetrators).
I’m not interested enough to run the numbers, except to say that the best ejection seats are good only to 600 KEAS: much above that, and your likelihood of survival goes way down. In the terrible F-22 accident in March 2009, the pilot ejected at somewhere around 760 KEAS, and died shortly afterwards (I think he was alive when the rescue team got there but didn’t make it to the base hospital). Of course, he had just about as bad of a Hobson’s choice as you can get – slam into the desert floor still in the airplane, or eject at an essentially unsurvivable flight condition. Poor bastard; he was basically dead as soon as he started the maneuver.
As far as an escape capsule goes, has there ever been one that actually worked worth a damn? The B-1A’s certainly didn’t (and there are so many lessons learned from that fully avoidable accident it would fill a book).
I haven’t seen the movie – despite being an airplane nut and aerospace engineer, I hated the first one and have no interest in seeing the sequel – but I kind of like the idea that Mav is killed in the Mach 10 mishap and the rest of the movie is his journey through some kind of Purgatory, trying to make amends for his prior personal and professional failures. But I seriously doubt Hollywood could think coherently enough to pull off a mindfuck like that 😉
FB-111 pod saved some folks. http://www.ejectionsite.com/f111restore.htm
There were successful F-111 pod ejections. I used to work with an F-111 ejection survivor. He said they weren’t always successful. He said the rescue guys liked the ejection pods because it made recovering the bodies easier.
During the crash of an XB-70, one of the pilots was able to eject using the unique seat that closed its clamshell doors around the pilot before blasting free. He was severely injured when the doors closed on his arm, but survived. His copilot didn’t make it out. In any case, the plane was subsonic at the time.
Speculation is an ejection pod ala FB-111.
The late great pilot Bob Hoover (Jimmy Doolittle said he was the best stick and rudder man who ever lived) was shot down in WWII and escaped in a FW-190. I’m not certain what fighter he was flying when he was shot down. One story says it was a Spitfire.
https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/25/news/bob-hoover-obit/index.html
“Entertaining but improbable” is the top score Hollywood can achieve with any sort of action movie. So your assessment amounts to a five-star review.
-Pilot and serious space nerd, still seething over the Apollo 13 movie with LIVE SHOTS OF ACTORS IN MICROGRAVITY losing the visual effects Oscar to a goddamn CGI talking pig.
The action movie I want to see is The Battle of Lake Changjin, what is characterized as a Chinese propaganda movie about their forces entering the Korean War, sending the UN forces into headlong retreat.
It might be Communist propaganda, but it takes the perspective that their forces fought heroically in the face of enormous casualties.
I think an English-language release of this movie should be titled, “Saving Private Ry-Uhn” starring an actor named Ma Da-Mon.
It was entertaining. Typical fare that is watchable if you have a willing sense of disbelief. I did enjoy no wokeness though. And seeing Iceman on screen was a pleasant surprise.
Trivia – I was in Army basic in May 1987 and they marched us down to the base theatre to see the original.
I might have asked to see the IG after being frog marched to see the first TOPGUN. Of course, you probably didn’t even know what that was at the time. It also would have been some diversion from having been thrown to the dogs.