@@stijnvandamme76 That is until you imagine what would happen should you shoot the seat upwards. As has been mentioned several times, the early ejection seats did not have rockets powerful enough to clear the vertical stabilizer of the F-104 at Mach 2. So the seat had to be ejected downward. Trying to pack more punch into the rockets at that time would lead to severe spine damage, not to mention the fact, that the US did not have a strong enough rocket for the seat at that time. Edit: another thing I forgot: early seats were NOT zero-zero capable. So in case of an emergency you would have to get the plane to fly at a predetermined minimum speed and height before you could eject out of it.
Had dinner with a former pilot of this aircraft. He mentioned his version was the downward ejection version. The heel cups were mandatory to have your feet in before ejecting or you'd break your legs. The plane was to be rolled and inverted prior to exit based on what he told me
My dad as a civilian aircraft mechanic for GE in 1959 on Edwards AFB was ejected from an F104 starfighter in a hangar crashed into the ceiling and fell onto pipes. 3yrs in the hospital, half in traction. He ended up a paraplegic but went back to work for General Electric until his death in 1971. Ambrose (Andy) Mullin. His lawyer won him $40,000 and his job back.
I should explain how my dad happened to be ejected from the F104. The canopy became stuck with Andy inside working. I'm sure they tried physical ways. But finally decided to release the air pressure on the Jet in the hope by releasing pressure operating the seat ejecter system would only pop the canopy. This based on the assumption like other seats the F104 operated used airpresser. So Andy sat in the seat ready to yank the seats eject cord. As you know the seat actually works with a high caliber round. When he pull the cord the canopy flew off, he and the seat slammed into the ceiling. When a pilot was forced to eject a medical examination was required to determine whether it caused body or brain damage. Thanks for the opportunity to tell you my dad Andy Mullin also had the Right Stuff. If Poncho Barnes was in the movie, I think Andy deserved honorable mention. By the way Poncho Barnes handymen stole Bill Ware's horse and sheep while he was a medic in WW1. Bill told me the story of getting his horse back, said he cried like a baby. Poncho was quite a woman.
Interesting Presentation... 2 or 3 years ago on my way to AZ from WI I took 5 days and hit 15 differant Air Museums on the way. One (don't rember where) had 7or 8 differant Ejection seats all lined up next to each other. Some very interesting differances.
I understood from listening to a 104 pilot that the 'spurs' were in the boots and they clicked when they walked around. It would then make sense to call the fittings on the end of the cables the stirrups as you said.
Wait... So Matthew Burchette (I hope I write it correctly) isn't the curatore anymore? What is gonna happen to Behind The Wings? Btw, thanks to all the people that work with this museum and yt channel
Got curious so I googled him (you did spell his name correctly) and found that he had been picked as Senior Curator of The Museum of Flight in Tukwila, Washington, just south of Seattle as of September 3rd, 2019 according to this post. www.museumofflight.org/News/6045/the-museum-of-flight-welcomes-matthew-r-burchette-as-its-new-senior-curator Chuck Stout has some big (energetic) shoes to fill in my opinion but I do wish them the best.
W ce lent vidéo, Chuck. My 7yr old daughter just asked this evening what an ejection seat was, so I'll show her this mañana. Please keep them coming. Thanks for the inspiration and keep on trucking!
It is true that Matthew Burchette has now become the Senior Curator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. If you check out their TH-cam Channel, he is featured in some of there recent videos! We're still brainstorming what to do with Behind the Wings. In the meantime, we're still making a bunch of videos like this ejection seat one that highlight our artifacts and aircraft.
The Germans pioneered ejection seats in WW2 primarily in their push/pull fighter, to keep the pilot from being shredded by the rear propellor. And it wasn't mere discomfort from a supersonic ejection as many pilots during the Viet Nam conflict suffered from those seats; the arm flailing broke bones such as Sen. John McKane's (both). Thats why capsules were tried in the F-111 and the XB-70 (which cost one pilot his life). nice vid though.
The Starfighter provoked one of the German Bundeswehrs greatest scandals ever. In 1964 no less than 27 Starfighters crashed with 17 deaths. From 916 ordered Starfighters, 269 crashed and many of the deaths related to the ejection seat crashing into the t-shaped rudder causing deadly injuries. Such an awesome plane but poorly constructed. Especially the F104F series.
The Germans crashed a lot of F-104's due to insufficient training, poor maintenance, lousy weather, and birdstrikes. German Starfighter ejections were well-documented. If the pilot ejects out of the envelope and hits the tail, that's not the fault of the seat. I suspect the number of those is just a handful, not "many".
My dear friend, when a plane is damage (most often) it loses speed rapidly, for example in a dogfight scenario but the problem with the starfighter is that they used it as an ground attack aircraft and it bad weather it was super hard to control and the aircraft never forgives pilot error so it ended up on crashes that they could not even eject out of
A minor missed opportunity to discuss the early model F-104s downward firing ejection seat.
That's what I was looking forward to
the downward ejection thing seems so nuts. I can't imagine it working well..
@@stijnvandamme76 That is until you imagine what would happen should you shoot the seat upwards. As has been mentioned several times, the early ejection seats did not have rockets powerful enough to clear the vertical stabilizer of the F-104 at Mach 2. So the seat had to be ejected downward. Trying to pack more punch into the rockets at that time would lead to severe spine damage, not to mention the fact, that the US did not have a strong enough rocket for the seat at that time.
Edit: another thing I forgot: early seats were NOT zero-zero capable. So in case of an emergency you would have to get the plane to fly at a predetermined minimum speed and height before you could eject out of it.
Had dinner with a former pilot of this aircraft. He mentioned his version was the downward ejection version. The heel cups were mandatory to have your feet in before ejecting or you'd break your legs. The plane was to be rolled and inverted prior to exit based on what he told me
My dad as a civilian aircraft mechanic for GE in 1959 on Edwards AFB was ejected from an F104 starfighter in a hangar crashed into the ceiling and fell onto pipes. 3yrs in the hospital, half in traction. He ended up a paraplegic but went back to work for General Electric until his death in 1971. Ambrose (Andy) Mullin. His lawyer won him $40,000 and his job back.
I should explain how my dad happened to be ejected from the F104. The canopy became stuck with Andy inside working. I'm sure they tried physical ways. But finally decided to release the air pressure on the Jet in the hope by releasing pressure operating the seat ejecter system would only pop the canopy. This based on the assumption like other seats the F104 operated used airpresser. So Andy sat in the seat ready to yank the seats eject cord. As you know the seat actually works with a high caliber round. When he pull the cord the canopy flew off, he and the seat slammed into the ceiling. When a pilot was forced to eject a medical examination was required to determine whether it caused body or brain damage. Thanks for the opportunity to tell you my dad Andy Mullin also had the Right Stuff. If Poncho Barnes was in the movie, I think Andy deserved honorable mention. By the way Poncho Barnes handymen stole Bill Ware's horse and sheep while he was a medic in WW1. Bill told me the story of getting his horse back, said he cried like a baby. Poncho was quite a woman.
The F-104 was a rocket! That ejection seat saved many lives.
Wonderful. Thank you Chuck! :)
Best wishes from Poland. Stay safe & healthy!
Hi Chuck thanks for the information.
i liked the old curator
Interesting Presentation... 2 or 3 years ago on my way to AZ from WI I took 5 days and hit 15 differant Air Museums on the way. One (don't rember where) had 7or 8 differant Ejection seats all lined up next to each other. Some very interesting differances.
I understood from listening to a 104 pilot that the 'spurs' were in the boots and they clicked when they walked around. It would then make sense to call the fittings on the end of the cables the stirrups as you said.
Thanks for the video!
Where's Mathew
**WHERE IS MATHEW**
He now works as a curator at the Museum of flight (Seattle I thought)
My first thought too!
Wait... So Matthew Burchette (I hope I write it correctly) isn't the curatore anymore? What is gonna happen to Behind The Wings?
Btw, thanks to all the people that work with this museum and yt channel
Got curious so I googled him (you did spell his name correctly) and found that he had been picked as Senior Curator of The Museum of Flight in Tukwila, Washington, just south of Seattle as of September 3rd, 2019 according to this post.
www.museumofflight.org/News/6045/the-museum-of-flight-welcomes-matthew-r-burchette-as-its-new-senior-curator
Chuck Stout has some big (energetic) shoes to fill in my opinion but I do wish them the best.
W ce lent vidéo, Chuck.
My 7yr old daughter just asked this evening what an ejection seat was, so I'll show her this mañana.
Please keep them coming.
Thanks for the inspiration and keep on trucking!
It is true that Matthew Burchette has now become the Senior Curator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. If you check out their TH-cam Channel, he is featured in some of there recent videos! We're still brainstorming what to do with Behind the Wings. In the meantime, we're still making a bunch of videos like this ejection seat one that highlight our artifacts and aircraft.
@@Wings_Museum thanks! If I'll have the chance to travel to the USA, I'm gonna visit you!
Great video, nice job.
I wouldn’t mind being stuck in the museum by myself!
Wheres Matt
"EJECTO SEATO CUUUUZ!!!"
Is this the c-2 ejection seat? I know the Luftwaffe used a Martin-Baker seat for their Starfighters.
I heard pilots would be ejected downwards?
On earlier models?
Before rocket seats were a thing. The designers thought that the older seats would not have enough power to clear the high T-tail.
Well, this guy forgot to also mention those ankle braces break ankles when they retract back more often than none...
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😊😊😊😊😊😊 from Malaysia 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾
another home run...
The Germans pioneered ejection seats in WW2 primarily in their push/pull fighter, to keep the pilot from being shredded by the rear propellor. And it wasn't mere discomfort from a supersonic ejection as many pilots during the Viet Nam conflict suffered from those seats; the arm flailing broke bones such as Sen. John McKane's (both). Thats why capsules were tried in the F-111 and the XB-70 (which cost one pilot his life). nice vid though.
I came here because reading skunkworks book about xf104 DOWNWARD ejection seta, but it is not spoken about in the video :(
The Starfighter provoked one of the German Bundeswehrs greatest scandals ever. In 1964 no less than 27 Starfighters crashed with 17 deaths. From 916 ordered Starfighters, 269 crashed and many of the deaths related to the ejection seat crashing into the t-shaped rudder causing deadly injuries. Such an awesome plane but poorly constructed. Especially the F104F series.
The Germans crashed a lot of F-104's due to insufficient training, poor maintenance, lousy weather, and birdstrikes. German Starfighter ejections were well-documented. If the pilot ejects out of the envelope and hits the tail, that's not the fault of the seat. I suspect the number of those is just a handful, not "many".
give me a martin baker seat anyday
2 Tom cat pilots were horribly ejected while standing in an F 14 parked on a carrier.
Love these but the dang music… it’s gotta go once he dives in. Damn near ruins it
You can't eject at 1200 mph.
Well... you could try...
My dear friend, when a plane is damage (most often) it loses speed rapidly, for example in a dogfight scenario but the problem with the starfighter is that they used it as an ground attack aircraft and it bad weather it was super hard to control and the aircraft never forgives pilot error so it ended up on crashes that they could not even eject out of
WOOHOO 1st.
Congrats! Thanks for tuning in first!
Waaaaay better than the other guy and his dumb jokes that are far from funny.
All that really about his stretched out legs? They are stretched out anyway because of the rudder pedals Mr. Curator. Check your resume.
You should put in an application at the museum and take his job. Be sure to include all your ejection seat experience.
This has to be the single most dumbest comment I´ve ever read
Peter Zwegert if I were Jerry I’d delete the comment. Snarky and makes no sense.
Mr. Curator mentioned the pilot's legs being extended.