WEBVTT - To The Escape Pod! 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:02.759 Are you looking for brand new episodes of a short 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.520 How Stuff Works podcast that explains the everyday world around us, 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.280 then check out brain Stuff with me Christian Saga. New 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.520 episodes hit every Monday and Wednesday on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:22.080 or anywhere else you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:30.400 to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.239 Hey you, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.920 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.559 A lot of times on this podcast we end up 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.400 talking about instincts. Yes, we use our instincts to talk 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.480 about instincts for better or worse, often worse. But one 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:50.440 of any animal's deepest instincts is the escape instinct. It's 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.880 right down there with the desire for food, water, reproduction, 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.480 but I would say maybe even more immediate. And you 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.800 can definitely see how powerful it is by the way 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.280 that escape instincts, even in rational, really high functioning primates 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.240 like human beings, can totally short circuit rational thinking and 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.080 lead to mass panics that kill people. This happens all 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:15.040 the time. Uh. And so the escape drive, you know, 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.000 the fight or flight impulse, has been associated in neuroscience 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.479 with the amygdala and the autonomic nervous system, deep deep, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.120 primitive old parts of the brain, the rat like hind brain, 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.000 the reptile brain. Right though I have heard people disputing 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.959 the term reptile brain, I do not refer to it 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.480 as such, and from a scientific standpoint, right, But but 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.080 the idea of the the earlier, more primitive parts of 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.640 the brain that go way back in evolutionary history, that 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.320 is there, and so escape is is rooted down in 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.240 those really primitive parts of the brain. Is this fundamental, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.680 intractable part of human psychology, because think about it. When 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.480 you go into a room, even if there's no cause 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.760 of danger whatsoever, just say it's an office Christmas party 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.240 something like that. Oh yeah, you better believe I'm gonna 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.640 have an escape plane at an office. Exactly what's the 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.720 first thing you do in your mind? If you're like me, 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.720 it's probably unconscious. You're not consciously thinking about it, but 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.760 you do just sort of take note of where all 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.400 the exits are in the room. Do you do the 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.800 same thing, Robert, Yeah, Well, I I would say, like 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.399 the physical exits, it's almost like a subconscious thing. But 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.520 I also will kind of have like social exit strategies 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.760 in mind as well. Right, right, If this gets uncomfortable 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:33.640 for any number of reasons, and I'm not saying like 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.800 office Christmas parties in particular are uncomfortable, but like any 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.040 social situation that I'm not like one comfortable with, I'll 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.400 have that escape hatch in the back of my mind. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.760 You know, that's a really good point because that kind 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.840 of shows how our obsession with physical escape extends even 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.639 to our metaphors and our abstract thinking. You know, you're 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.080 in an awkward social situation, how do I get out? 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.280 You're in a bad relationship, and you think, how do 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.600 I find a way out of this? You're not physically 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.160 finding a way out, but that that's the way your 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.520 brain goes. It's like the hatch in the top of 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.000 an elevator on the roof of a school bus. You're 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:15.360 probably not gonna shinny up any any elevator shaft cables today, 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.239 but there's something comforting about knowing that hatches there. So 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.200 I have always kind of wanted to do that. Yeah, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.880 but but it's true. I think always somewhere deep in 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.160 your mind, there is a part of you, mostly unconscious, 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.520 that is obsessed with escape, And it's always doing the 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.080 pre calculations for an escape trajectory. How would I get 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:36.920 out of here? How how could I get out if 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.480 I had to? So, of course our obsession with escape, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.440 escape routes, flight from danger, it extends to our technology. 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.640 Our technology always reflects our psychology. So when we imagine 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.560 a rebel spaceship fleeing from the galactic empire, we also 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.680 imagine escape pods fleeing from the larger rebel ship. And 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.720 uh no, of course, no science fiction vessel is complete 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.880 without an escape pod. And I think at some point 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.400 this year, I bet, when times were rough and the 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.720 world seemed full of despair, you thought about an escape pod, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.680 didn't you. Sometime this year many of us have found 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.120 ourselves idly wishing you could just get into the capsule 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.120 and blast away and leave everything behind. The one I 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.760 always come back to in in fiction is the escape 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:28.719 pod that that that president ideal President Donald Pleasants uses 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.800 um to escape from Air Force one in Escape from 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.520 New York. It's also my favorite, yeah, because it's it's 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.560 so comfy. It's an egg, yeah, and and Pleasants is 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.680 kind of egg like himself, so and it it's just 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.680 this perfect egg that he's able to get into an 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.440 escape from immediate danger into of course more immediate danger. Right, So, 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.600 if you haven't seen the movie President US President Donald Pleasants, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.640 which is kind of strange because he has a British accent. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.200 He gets his plane, gets captured by terrorists who are 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.240 going to kill him, and they're gonna crash the plane 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.600 into Manhat and I believe it was kind of strange. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.320 But yeah, so Donald Pleasants gets into this big egg 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.359 and he gets shot out the back of his airplane 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.920 to safety. I think he says something to his doomed 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:15.440 staff like mang god, watch over argue all. But yeah, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.200 that's a great one. But there are tons of great 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.680 fictional escape pods there in all kinds of James Bond movies. 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.280 Always when Raker had a great one that was kind 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:28.000 of like a like a sexy um bachelor pad, they're 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:32.000 always like that. There's some aquatics escape pods in James 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.360 Bond movies too. Why did the escape pods in these 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.040 movies always have like satin sheets and champagne coolers and 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.800 curtains on the windows. It's weird because they're kind of 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.599 it's kind of there's a sense of it being a 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.200 a comfy little abode and like a little bed, but 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.320 also kind of like a little casket. You know, it 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.880 gets complicated, I guess when you start teasing apart how 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.680 we design our our escape pods and how we design 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.760 our our our coffins. You're totally right. It is like 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.919 a coffin. It's like a sexy, sexy coffin. But of course, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.800 so we don't have to look entirely to fiction for 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.000 examples of escape pods, because sometimes we really do build 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:18.800 escape capsules of some kind into our technologies, especially our vehicles. Um, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.560 but why would you build escape capsules into real vehicles? 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.039 Why not just have a door? Well, that's kind of 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.960 an obvious question. It's a great question. Um, I think 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.240 what one of the main area to look for an 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.159 answer here is in the room of aviation and a 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.680 lot of We're gonna go through several examples that are 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:40.280 related to aviation or or space exploration, because we've all 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.520 seen like or I don't know about we've all, but 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:44.960 I've certainly seen my fair share, and I know you've 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.160 seen your fair share of like old serial adventures from 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.400 the thirties and forties, where you have individuals trying to 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.440 get off of a crashing airplane. They're using an obvious 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:59.400 set with just in abnormally large fuselage, and they're walking 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.839 with relative of ease down the aisle of this airplane 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.720 to go jump out of a door, out of the 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.240 the the portal with their parachute. And of course a 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.440 crashing airplane or an out of controlled airplane or airplane 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.400 imperil is not going to be that straightforward a situation generally, 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.440 right well, I mean a passenger aircraft also are just 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.160 not made to be jumped out of. You can read 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:27.160 the whole dB Cooper story for for some more details 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.040 on this. So there's a basic need for an escape 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.640 system be a and be at an ejection seat, which 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.920 we're not really gonna get into ejection seats much here 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.800 that we should mention we're all familiar with ejector seats 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.000 right like in top GA, and the ejector seat will 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.960 propel you up the pilot out of the failing aircraft. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.680 You deploy a parachute, you get the pilot safely to 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.760 the ground, but generally the canopy comes off, though some 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.320 there are models of ejection seats where the canopy did 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.240 not come off and you just blast through the glass. 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.000 But today we're talking about escape pods. So when you 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.080 need this enclosed space, when does that come in. Well, 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.880 it's gonna come when you need added protection, certainly when 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.720 you're dealing with higher altitude, higher speed aircraft. And and 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:07.240 of course this is just on top of we we 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.040 talked about, you know, the need for the individual, for 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.160 the pilot, for the crew member to have an escape plan. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.480 But of course just to boil down, like the basic 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.400 economic idea here is that human lines are more valuable 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.560 than machines. Yeah, but not in like a moral sense, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.880 because most of these are war machines designed to like 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.160 drop nuclear payloads on the whole cities. Right know what 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.520 means they cost more to train, right right? You need 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.720 you need highly trained specialist individuals who are piloting these aircraft. 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.440 And even though the aircraft costs millions and millions of dollars, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.720 if it goes down in flames, at least you can say, 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.080 in a sence, you're saving the brain of the aircraft, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.560 you're saving the pilots that fluid exactly. So let's look 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.800 at some examples from aviation history of these great Uh, 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.120 what would you call it if if the pilot being 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.800 saved from a failing aircraft is like saving the brain, 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.440 the escape pod is like the jar that you put 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.040 the brain in. Yeah, So let's look at some of 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.200 these jars, all right, Well, so the first one we're 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:05.960 gonna bring up, and we're gonna I'm gonna try and 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.120 make sure that we have images related to these on 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:09.880 the landing page for this episode of Stuff to Blow 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.319 your Mind dot Com, because you're gonna we're gonna try 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.840 and describe everything, but you know you're gonna you're gonna 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.920 probably want some visuals. So the first one we want 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.800 to mention here is the B fifty eight Hustler, the 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.440 convert B fifty eight Hustler. So this was a bomber 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.520 that saw service nineteen sixty through nineteen seventy. About hundred 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.800 and sixteen were built. It was a three man crew. 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.520 This was a U. S. Air Force US Air Force 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.160 debuted nineteen fifty six, and it was the U. S. 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.800 Air force is first operational supersonic bomber. It was visually 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.520 notable because it had these awesome delta wings, so it 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.199 looked like an arrow um and it also had a 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.920 wasp waist fuselage. It was so thin that it had 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.880 to use external bomb pods, gleaming chrome appearance, and most 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:58.720 of the images you see of it, so yeah, it 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.720 looked like an arrowhead. They'll maybe an arrowhead either you know, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.199 pregnant with death or infected with explosive parasites. However you 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.679 want to frame it. It is a very weird and 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.280 very sexy looking aircraft. It's got this this tapered fuselage 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.400 like you're talking about, is kind of thin, and uh, 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:18.280 the in these straight, completely angular wings cutting through it. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.920 It's cool to look at. Yeah, and I wanna I 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.360 mention this real quick quickly here. Uh it sounds like 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.240 some people might be thinking, oh, you're graffly enthusiastic about 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.840 all these awful war machines, Robert. Uh I do have 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:32.760 to say that I grew up in a household where 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.920 my my dad was a big aviation enthusiast, and uh 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.640 I was really into aviation history, military avation history. So 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.000 I grew up like with a lot of books about 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.920 these airplanes around, and it seems like they were always 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.880 documentaries on TV about these aircraft. So I have a 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.800 certain fondness for their designs. The back of the BF. 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:56.560 So yeah, sexy looking aircraft, uh, and initially boasted typical 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.760 ejection seats, so just blast the individual crew members out 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.920 of the imperiled aircraft. But ejection at supersonic speeds proved dangerous, 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:09.600 so Stanley Aircraft Corporation developed a retrofitted ejection capsule and 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.520 in the late nineteen sixty two, and this allowed aircrew 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.800 to eject safely at twice the speed of sound and 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.840 from as high as altitudes of seventy tho feet or 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.640 roughly twenty one kilometers. That does not sound like a 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.040 condition in which you would want to be ejected naked 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.960 out of your right, have your brain ejected naked, or 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.520 even in a flight suit and in a chair, right, 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.040 So they came up with this capsule. The capsule was 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.319 essentially a clam shell hood that closed over the ejection seat, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.000 and it was I found some some gay images on 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.760 this and the Getty images a database of some some 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.679 work that wented and went into designing this, and it 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.400 was apparently referred to as the torture chamber during development 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.240 because it I guess because it kind of looks like 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.319 an iron maiden. It really does. Yeah, So this capsule 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.199 you have the seed. It's like a right ang goal 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.360 kind of thing, which is where the crew member would be, 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.640 I guess, but folded over the top of it, it 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.480 looks kind of like a It's just this cascading series 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.280 of metal bands coming down. So it looks like a 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.960 mask that a Cinabyte would wear in one of the 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.080 hell raisor sequels, and the Cinabyte would be called like 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.520 shutter Face or something. Yeah, it's reminiscent a little bit 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.240 too of a roll top desk. Yeah yeah, yeah, like that, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.920 but metal. Yeah. So this this that once it's over you. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.320 This thing was air tight, had an independent oxygen supply 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:37.360 supply system that ensured pressurization, and this was but one 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.360 of the things was it was far from fully automated, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:40.920 because I know when you're when you're hearing this or 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.079 reading about it, you're imagining like, oh, it shuts over 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:44.520 you and then you blast out like you're in a 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.480 science fiction movie. But it wasn't. The user still had 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.720 a number of choices. After the clamshell shut you could 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.000 continue onto ejection, or you could hold off until the 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.800 plane made it to a lower altitude that didn't demand 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.400 the pressurization. Um. The idea here being you know, that 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:07.040 is still incredibly dangerous, UM, ejecting from the aircraft at 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.280 high altitudes, even in the capsule, So if the plane 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.000 is not in just complete peril, then maybe it makes 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.199 sense to wait just a minute. Um. And this is 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.240 the thing we should keep in mind throughout the episode. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.400 I mean, ejecting from an aircraft, Uh always comes with risks. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.880 You know, when you eject from an aircraft to bail out, 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.760 there is a certain percent chance that you will be 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.760 killed by the ejection process. That's why it is a 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.840 last result, is a violent last resort in a in 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.320 a in a terrible dangerous situation. Now, additionally, the pilot's 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.640 capsule in the hustler contained the control stick and other 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.000 necessary controls to pilot the aircraft to that lower altitude, 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:51.520 and then communication was maintained capsule to capsule in the airplane. Uh. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.480 So it's this interesting, UM. I love how these capsules 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:01.720 are not you know, immediate um, immediately exercides from the craft. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.319 They're kind of a part of the craft in peril. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.360 So what kind of test pilot would volunteer to be 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.080 the first test subject of the torture chamber. Well, it's 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.079 interesting and reading about these different tests, because the thing 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:17.839 you have you have a fair amount of testing the 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.560 win into any of these extensive testing even uh, you 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.560 would have test pilots that are you know, trying them 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.560 out in some cases on the ground. Um, they're loading 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.760 them onto um, you know, under propelled carts to just 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.400 see how they how the impact affects them. And in 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:38.600 the case of the Hustlers ejection capsules, the US Air 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.920 Force used Himalayan and American black bears to test the 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.480 ejection seats. Well, how did I hear you? Right? Yes, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.560 say that again, Himalayan and American black bears. Uh, none 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.720 of them were killed during the test. They always suffered 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.720 broken bones for what it's worth, and they were drugged. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.440 But we're talking ejections at speeds of mock one point 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:03.400 six um, that's ween or and also at altitudes of 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:08.280 forty five thousand feet. So yeah, the bears helped us 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.960 out in that regardless. Well, hard to argue that they volunteered, 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.920 but I'm glad to hear that no bears were killed 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.000 in the making of this escape pod. Yeah, at least 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.880 we can say that, right. Um, So after injection, the 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.480 capsule here featured a parachute of course, as well as 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.360 shock absorbers and inflatable bladders to turn the thing into 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.560 a life raft if it fell in the water. Uh So, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.400 in short, it was it was a pretty pretty cool 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.640 escape capsule. I think. I think it's one of the better, 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.200 like just pure examples of of a of an escape 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:41.760 capsule in aviation history. There are actually videos online of 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.800 the tests of this escape capsule, of it coming up 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:46.920 out of the plane. You can see it just rocketing 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.240 up into the sky and shooting up over the top 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.280 of the plane as the plane passes underneath. It's worth 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.160 looking up. Yeah, there's also a fabulous periscope films documentary 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.760 that's freely available on YouTube now that that shows the 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:01.960 ex actually how it worked, and it had had like 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:06.680 some wonderful animations. They quoted Shakespeare and showed like sort 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.200 of a Disney documentary hand paid the leafing through a 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.280 book of the works of Shakespeare just impeccably, you know, 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.680 nineteen fifties pr project here, So do we know how 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.880 often people in the real world ejected from one of 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.760 these planes and how well it worked? This was a 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.840 real revelation to me. There is a wonderful website and 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.720 I say wonderful. It's it's a little long in the 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.280 tooth now it could it could benefit from redesign, but 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.960 this but the work that's gone into it is pretty 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:40.360 pretty awesome. It's ejection history dot org dot UK and 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:46.400 it's an attempt by the author and contributors to catalog 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:52.160 every ejection from from key aircraft and and and and 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:57.240 also rank like how how survivable each incident was so 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.040 all in all, like some some aircraft have better databases 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.600 and others on this site, but it's it's a real 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:10.040 sobering look at the effectiveness of ejection seats and ejection capsules, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.440 UH to determine, like to what sooner are they able 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.359 to save lives in the event of, you know, catastrophe. 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.120 In the case of the Hustler, it looked like there's 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:24.040 something like thirty ejections total, with the majority of them 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.000 being survivals, so the torture chamber by and large worked, 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:29.560 it would seem too. I don't I don't have to 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.840 have a particular stat on it because the database doesn't 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.000 really present the information that that. Clearly it's not it's 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:41.119 not a modern spreadsheets sort of format, but certainly if 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:42.520 you really have to have an answer to that, you 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.600 can go and count them. Um, but yeah, the Hustler 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.639 an interesting plane, a great escape capsule. Get in that 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.720 centerbyte head. Okay, let's look at another one. How about 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.600 the XP seventy Valkyrie. Oh yeah, so this this one's 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.520 really cool too. So this was a prototype for the 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.440 B set D And this was another beautiful delta wing 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.879 bomber of the sixties, designed to be a high altitude 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.879 mock three bomber. It never actually entered service, so visually 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.320 it's most striking feature and the one that that if 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.720 you've looked at aviation pictures in the past, you might go, oh, 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.120 that airplane, it's uh, it's probably because it has these 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:22.399 two large canards, which active surfaces essentially imagine the So 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.200 imagine the airplane is a bird. It has two little 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.720 wings right behind its ears. Um, those are just you know, 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:35.159 control surfaces essentially located behind the cockpit. Performance was However, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.399 the really crazy thing about the XP seventy was that 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.040 it was designed to fold its wings down during supersonic 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.560 flight and ride its own shock wave quote much as 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.399 a surfer rides in ocean wave. That's a according to 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.240 the NASA DOT Gov fact sheet on this aircraft. So 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.159 if you look at pictures of this aircraft, it also 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.480 is very visually striking. As you say, I thought, this 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.400 one looks kind of like a paper plane. It it's 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.720 like it's very white and very thin, extremely thin as 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.000 far as the wings go. Has a paper like kind 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.760 of quality to it, except that the the of course, 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.720 the middle fuselage is kind of circular, but otherwise it's 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.280 it's dead ringer for paper plane. Yeah, it looks it 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.639 looks like a paper plane or piece of oregony, almost 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.200 like an oregony crane. Yeah, I see that too. So 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.880 this airplane design came about in a time of uncertain 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:29.119 future for traditional bombers, and the Kennedy administration ended up 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.040 scrapping it, so it became a research aircraft, largely for 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.440 supersonic transport research, looking into the idea of using supersonic 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.159 airline or supersonic sonic transport planes. In general, it was 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.640 the right shape, it was the right size, and even 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.960 though the program was scrapped, they had two prototypes, so 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.760 you had two XP seventy Valkyries, so it was sort 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.440 of a prototype Concorde. Well it was like that, Well, 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.919 it was totally a bomber, but but it was the 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.239 right size and it had enough in common with the 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.840 designs that were being looked at for commercial use that 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.840 it could be used to explore the possibilities there. So, 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.879 despite some of the problems the the early flight provided 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.880 data on a number of issues facing supersonic transport. These 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:23.000 included aircraft noise, operational problems, control system design, UH, comparison 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.960 of winternal predictions with what actually happens during the course 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.159 of flight, high altita to clear air turbulence, all of 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:31.920 these issues. I mean, this was there. There was still 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.000 so much to learn at the time about supersonic flight. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.160 But this one did have an injection capsule. Yes, back 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.439 to the main point. The reason we're talking about is 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.440 that it did feature an injection capsule and it had 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.320 a clam clam shell design similar to that that we 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.800 discussed in the Hustler. So they're bringing back shutter face, right, yeah, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.199 shutter faces in action that the ideally the chair that 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.800 you're in the cockpit seat, it kind of like folds 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.600 back and then the clam shell snap over uh. And 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.480 it contains survival gear oxygen systems. It also contained the 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.760 flight control stick for the pilot and uh, you know, 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.320 it's very much the same idea. We we only had 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.080 two of these, so it's there's not a lot of 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:21.800 ejection data on it. But there is one key incident 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.480 that occurred with one of the XP seventies, and that 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:29.160 was the tragedy involving one of them in nineteen sixty six. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.240 June eighth, nineteen sixty six, the second of the two 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.760 XP seventies crashed following a mid air collision with NASA's 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:41.399 F one oh four in Chase plane. How did that happen? Um, 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.880 they were essentially, they were they were doing photographs of 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.320 the research that was being conducted, and one plane got 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.119 too close to the other. And yeah, it was a 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.320 pretty pretty terrible accident because in the course of this, 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.679 Joe Walker, the F one oh four in pilot, he 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.400 died in the accident. Um Carl Cross, who was making 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:04.760 his first flight in the XP seventy, was unable to 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.280 eject and he died in the crash. North American test 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.879 pilot Al White, who had been with the XP seventy 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.480 projects since the beginning, he ejected. He said, he ejected, 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.680 uh in the capsule, but he received serious injuries in 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:24.040 the process because the clamshell crushed his arm. So his 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.640