UK

Ejector seat test for next generation fighter bomber

The ejector seat for the Royal Navy’s next generation fighter bomber has been put through its paces at a testing centre in Oxford.

A dummy was ejected from the cockpit of an F35 Lightning II, which was strapped to a rocket, as it went from 0 to 600mph in four seconds.

The test took place at a specialist track at Chalgrove Airfield near Oxford.

The ejector seat, fitted to a full-scale cockpit and nose of the fighter, has undergone more than 30 tests in the USA, France and UK courtesy of Martin-Baker, the firm synonymous with saving lives.

More than 7,000 aircrew from over 90 air forces owe their lives to the company’s ejector seats over the past half century.

In the case of the F35, which will be the punch of the Fleet Air Arm, RAF, US Air Force and US Marine Corps when it enters service later this decade, some 3,000 of these seats will be required.

They have undergone rigorous testing – 900,000 measurements are recorded per second by sensors during the trial ejections – before receiving the thumbs up from the F35 team.

The final trial ejection was witnessed by an impressed Rick Whittaker, test manager for BAE Systems which is overseeing Britain’s involvement in the Anglo-American jet.

He said: “Ejecting from an aircraft like the F35 typically takes no more than three seconds from the ejection handle being pulled to the pilot being on a parachute – you can imagine how quickly everything happens. I’m pleased to say the systems performed really well.”

The first naval variant of the Lightning II – the F35C – is undergoing evaluation at the US Navy’s trials school at Pax River, near Washington.

A Royal Navy team is already on the ground to get to grips with technology which is two generations ahead of the Harrier the new jet replaces.