Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: ejection seats
Message-ID: <8226@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Jul 89 03:09:16 GMT
References: <8028@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8093@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)


>... TV film of the MiG-29 (Fulcrum) crash at the Paris
>Airshow '89 showed that the plane was heading vertically for the ground when
>the pilot ejected at what must have been 50 - 100'. Upon leaving the plane the
>seat righted itself and deployed the chute immediately. It hadn't opened fully
>before hitting the ground but must have provided some breaking as the pilot
>bounced once but virtually walked away from the crash...

Aviation Week says the ejection was at about 300 feet, in fact.  On the
other hand, the aircraft was inverted in a near-vertical dive, which is
rather worse than inverted in level flight.  It's amazing that the pilot
survived, let alone with nothing more than cuts and bruises.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu