VIMAL JYOTHI ENGINEERING COLLEGE
CHEMPERI, KANNUR
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
SEMINAR
Science And Technology of Aircraft Seat Ejection
PRESENTED BY SUPERVISED BY
JEZNEEL JIJU ABRAHAM GOKULNATH R
VML19ME036 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
S7 ME B MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING
31/01/2024
1
SCHEME OF PRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION
RELEVANCE OF TOPIC
AREA OF FOCUS
STUDIES CONDUCTED
RESULTS FROM STUDIES
THEORY
MERITS
DEMERITS
APPLICATIONS
CHALLENGES FACED
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
• An ejection seat is an explosive powered life-saving
device to provide the safe and reliable means for the
pilot to abandon the aircraft in the shortest possible
time to save himself when the aircraft is in danger.
• Ejection seats are composed of many intricate systems
and subsystems mounted on the ejection rail.
• The system has been designed that it never fails to
work.
• The advanced concept of seat ejection considers
various factors such as aerodynamic forces, wind
blast, neck forces, and stability of seat and occupant.
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SEAT EJECTION REPRESENTATION
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RELEVANCE OF TOPIC
• Seat ejection is one of the means of escape
throughout the flight envelope while flying.
• For most of the fighter aircraft including trainer
aircraft, it is challenging to imagine an aircraft without
ejection seats.
• Therefore, it is essential to provide an ejection seat
inside cockpit of aircraft in the adverse condition
during either combat or testing so as to eject the pilot.
• Considering today’s need, a highly automated system
is absolutely necessary for all modern aircraft that
require occupants only to initiate the firing mechanism
till the pilot lands safely on the ground.
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AREA OF FOCUS
• In the early days, jumping out of aeronauts from high-
speed aircraft is extremely difficult because of high blast
wind pressure, turbulence around the cockpit, and
accelerations during the aircraft maneuvers.
• This posed risk and causes damage to the vertebra column
of an aviator.
• The ejection of the pilot is of utmost importance to the
services because the lives of the pilots are crucial than
saving military planes.
• Therefore, it is highly essential to use an ejection seat when
damage is caused due to either the fighter or trainer plane.
• This seminar reviews the work done on science and
technology of aircraft seat ejection with present, and
futuristic interest.
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Table : 1 LITERATURE SURVEY
Ref Paper title Journal Volume, Author
No. issue and
year
1 Ballistics of main seat ejection cartridges International 2021 Parate, B.
for aircraft application. Conference on A., Deodhar, K.
Ballistics D., Dixit, V. K.,
& Rao, V.
2 Propellant actuated device for High Tech and 2001 Parate, B. A
parachute deployment during seat Innovation Journal
ejection for an aircraft application
3 Attitude and Trajectory Calculation of Acta Armamentarii Vol 43 JI Xiabin ，
Ejection Seat within the Dynamic Period Issue 3
2020 ZHANG Tong ，
ZHANG Ruixi ，
XU Hang ，
WANG Pei ， JIN
Liying
4 Life extension study of imported main Science and 2021 Parate B. A.,
seat ejection cartridges using internal
31/01/2024 Technology of Bamble J. G.,
ballistic measurement for aircraft Energetic Materials D. V. Krishna 7
STUDIES CONDUCTED
• Acceleration, rate of rise of acceleration, and
forces experienced by the pilots are well within
acceptable physiological limits as laid down by
Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM),
Bangalore.
• Using an anthropomorphic dummy, this has
been demonstrated by carrying out the number
of tests.
• Factors such as aerodynamic forces, wind blast,
neck forces, and stability of seat and occupant
are considered here.
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RESULTS FROM STUDIES
• According to the IAM, Bengaluru, the
maximum acceleration and rate of rise of “g”
should not be greater than 25 “g” and 300 g/s.
• Acceleration vs. time for physically permitted
and design curve is shown in figure. The
physically permitted curve is indicated
in red colour, while the acceptable design
curve is indicated with a green colour.
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Acceleration vs. time for physically permitted and the design curve.
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RESULTS FROM STUDIES
• If these limits are more than physiological
limits, it will contribute to injury of the spinal
cord of the pilot.
• From this figure, it is observed that the total
time taken is divided into two phases. In
phase I, acceleration increase steadily and
reaches to the maximum value in time t1. In
phaseII, acceleration is kept constant up to a
stroke time ts.
THEORY
• The key devices of an ejection seat are:
1. Catapult
2. Rocket
3. Restraints
4. Parachute
• Pulling the ejection handle on a seat sets off an explosive cartridge in
the catapult gun, launching the ejection seat into the air.
• As the seat rides up the guide rails, a leg-restraint system is activated.
These leg restraints are designed to protect the crewmember's legs from
getting caught or harmed by debris during the ejection.
• An under-seat rocket motor provides the force that lifts the
crewmember to a safe height, and this force is not outside normal
human physiological limitations.
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THEORY
• Once out of the plane, a drogue gun in the seat fires a metal
slug that pulls a small parachute, called a drogue parachute,
out of the top of the chair. This slows the person's rate of
descent and stabilizes the seat's altitude and trajectory.
• After a specified amount of time, an altitude sensor causes the
drogue parachute to pull the main parachute from the pilot's
chute pack.
• At this point, a seat-man-separator motor fires and the seat
falls away from the crewmember. The person then falls back to
Earth as with any parachute landing.
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SEAT EJECTION MECHANISM
EJECTOR SEAT
PARTS
SEAT EJECTION VIDEO
PARACHUTE PACK
ACES-II
EJECTOR SEAT
SURVIVAL PACK
MERITS
• Even the best aircrafts may fail at certain conditions.
• Pilots may not be able to save their aircraft but they
can safely exit the aircraft and avoid certain death by
means of ejection seats.
• Ejection seat allows the pilots and the crew to escape
a situation in which the aircraft cannot be controlled
or is about to crash.
• The use of ejection is always a last resort but it will
save the life of the pilot.
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DEMERITS
• Every time a pilot pulls the eject lever there is a one
in three chance of them breaking a spine.
• 20 to 30% of the people who survive the ejection
process report some form of spinal injury.
• There are chances of injury from contact with parts
of the aircraft, the cockpit canopy or its debris, loose
items from a cockpit or items from another ejection
system.
• The gyrations of the ejection seat during its
alignment and deceleration before parachute
extraction, might give rise to injury.
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APPLICATIONS
• Used in escape systems for fighters, bombers,
acrobatic aircraft, and the Russian Buran space
shuttle
• ACES 5 ejection seat is used in fighter planes like
Lockheed Martin F-16, Lockheed Martin F-22,
Rockwell B1 and Boeing F-15
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CHALLENGES FACED
• Windblast, deceleration, temperature extremes,
stabilization, oxygen deficiency and pressure change
are problems that are commonly faced.
• Some of these problems are common with present
ejection seats also, but they become more severe for
conditions of higher speeds and higher altitudes.
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CONCLUSIONS
• Despite of important advances in CFD analysis, the
persistent efforts are needed to bring encouraging
procedures and methods to full the growth and
failure design applications.
• The current research is focused on high airspeed and
high altitude to enhance the performance capability
of future ejection seats.
• The next generation of escape systems will use
controllable propulsion systems to provide safe
ejection over the expanded aircraft flight
performance of advanced aircraft.
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REFERENCES
[1]Bement, L. J. Explosive fracturing of an f-16 canopy for through-canopy crew
egress. NASA Langley Research Center, Presented at 38 th Annual SAFE
Symposium, Reno, Nevada Oct 2000 9 20000109968.
[2]Bogdan, & (2009). The research of ballistic properties of ejection seats rocket
motors. Military University of Technology, Mechatronics Faculty, 2 Kaliski
Str., 00-908 Warsaw, Poland, . 1–13.
[3]Brochure, M. Douglas Aerospace, Missouri, wikipedia.
[4]Christopher, T. Carey a brief history of the development of western aircraft
ejection seat systems.
[5] AMCP 706. (1975). Propellant Actuated Devices. Alexandria, Virginia.
[6]Parate, B. A. (2020). Propellant actuated device for parachute deployment
during seat ejection for an aircraft application. High Tech and Innovation
Journal, 1(3), 112–120.
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