WEBVTT - How Ejection Seats Work 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:06.400 Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.680 to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff, Work Stops 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:18.800 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.639 That's Charles W. Chuck. Chucker's Bryant. This is stuff you 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:24.840 should know. You can just call us MAV and Goose 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:31.280 for this one. No you can't. Okay, okay, it depends 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.600 who's MAV and who's Goose. Well, the the re email, 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:36.639 I said that it's very appropriate for the show. Why 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.239 because Goose died because his ejection seed malfunction. I know 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:44.640 he hit his head on the canopy. I know I 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.320 broke his neck. Is because he'd angered God earlier that day, 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.680 I guess so, so I'll be Goose. Are you planning 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.880 on dying? I'm just planning on you feeling guilt for 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.840 the rest of your life. You caused the spin by 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.040 being a guns blazing maverick. That is true, but I 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.520 would be like, I didn't design the injection seat. That's 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:08.440 the guy who should feel guilty for the rest of 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.200 his life. I'm gonna go get a taco. Um. Yeah, 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.480 I'm gonna go ride my motorcycle around Miramar. It's funny. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:17.240 When I saw top Gun, and I may have talked 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:19.520 about this before, I remember thinking at the time, like, people, 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.920 you don't die in training exercises like that, that's so hollywood. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.479 It up as a matter of fact, that happened very 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.080 well two years ago. It happens all the time. You 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.040 never hear about it. Yeah, there's the guys that make 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:35.200 the papers, my paper. It doesn't. It's sad that it doesn't, 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:40.960 but uh, yeah, like it. It happens. Our military died 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.880 during training and it's it's awful. My brother in law 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.559 is a helicopter pilos, you know, and he's lost several 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.800 friends through the years in training. Yeah. Is it in 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.000 crashes or from ejection seats crashes? Yeah? Um, there was 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.560 a guy in two thousand and eleven. You know the 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:02.080 Blue Angels, the what there's also the Red Arrows. Yeah, 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.320 I know the Blue Angels. Okay, Well the Red Arrows 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:09.640 um are another formation flying team, like just basically some 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.320 really great pilots, and one of them was killed when 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.360 his ejection seat went off while his plane was motionless. 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.120 The ejection seat just accidentally went off. That's a zero 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.079 zero ejection and that what that's called. Yes, but that 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.400 means you're on the ground and you're not flying at all. Right, Um, 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.000 but I think the problem is the plane didn't realize 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.120 where the ejection. Um, the sequencer didn't realize that it 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:37.040 was a zero zero ejection because the paras you never deployed. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.840 So he died when he fell back down to earth 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.359 from a couple hundred feet out. I guess, yeah, well, 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.200 well this all makes sense in a second. Um. You 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.120 know what I think as a primer before, if you're 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.760 at home listening, you can go to the YouTube site 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:57.320 and look up, look up like ejection seat and there's 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.720 one like slow motion on the ground zero zero ejection 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.519 from film from different angles that really shows how it 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.520 all works. It's pretty cool and um, you really get 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.519 a sense of like what they do, go up a 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.480 couple hundred feet Yeah, and quick too, very quick. Um. 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:14.680 This so this is this is not even my intro. 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:22.080 I've got an intro, Chuck. There's a guy in World 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.679 War Two who is a tail gunner on a B 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.400 seventeen flying Fortress. And this man's name was Alan McGhee, 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.320 who's staff sergeant. And if you were a tail gunner 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.920 on the B seventeen, you were basically cramped into this 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.040 little gun turret with your knees up to your chest, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.240 your heads poking out in a little clear canopy shell. Yes, 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.560 and you had no room whatsoever to wear a parachute. 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.360 You had to keep it in the cockpit with everybody else. Well. 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.720 Alan McGee is on this B seventeen called the Snap 0:03:55.800 --> 0:04:01.320 Crackle Pop, and they're flying on a mission over France. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.840 Satan is there, which was also known as Flack City 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.880 because of the anti aircraft guns down on the ground. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.520 And sure enough, the Snap Crackle Pop took some flak lost. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.159 A wing had a couple of holes in it, and 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.839 these holes in turn put holes into McGee's parachute. So 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.960 he needs to bail out. He finds a hole that's 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.000 been blown into the side of the the Snap Crackle 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:33.120 Pop and jumps out at twenty thousand feet with a 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.279 parachute with holes in it, with no parachute whatsoever, because 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.719 he was like why bother. He just knew he needed 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.200 to get out of the plane quick and he later 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.279 said that he thought he had a parachute. Yes, He 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.560 fall twenty two thousand feet more than four miles to 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.480 the ground, goes right through the skylight in the satan 0:04:54.560 --> 0:05:00.600 Asaire Trades train station and Lands and Lives. He had 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.280 a um how does that happen? He had I'll tell 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.640 you a second. He had a broken right leg, broken 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:10.040 right ankle, nearly severed right arm, twenty eight shrapnel wounds 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.520 from the shards of glass because he fell right through 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.960 plate glass from again twenty two thousand ft four miles 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.160 above the ground, and he lived to tell about it. 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.920 A German doctor apparently took very good care of him, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.200 and he later on said, you know, publicly thanked the guy, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.360 even though he was a Nazi doctor, um for saving 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.320 his life. And so I'm reading about this and this 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.000 is just astounding. I'm looking into it more and more 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:41.160 and more, and there's no trick. It's just physics. Um. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.480 This physicist Dr Seth Eisenberg, he's not a physicist, he's 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.240 a trauma specialist. He said on Popular Mechanics that there's 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.640 really no magic here. That he was going. McGee was 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.479 going as fast as he would have been had he 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.160 jumped off of something like a twelve story building. Once 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.120 you reach terminal velocity, it's all the same, whether it's 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:08.840 four miles or whether it's twenty feet. Um, it's still 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.320 pretty spectacular that he fell four miles through the roof 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:17.279 of a building and survived. The point of all this 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:18.919 is so the point was though, that he could have 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:20.960 fallen off a twelve story building through the plate glasses 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.919 and everyone had been like, Wow, that's pretty awesome, but 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.679 not miraculous. Yeah, compared to four miles it's not. Okay, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.919 I got you. It's still be pretty miraculous that he survived. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.960 Used to die, you know, twelve story building. He's pretty 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.839 banged up. Yeah, So the point is him just jumping 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:39.880 out of the the hole in the side of the 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.599 snap crackle pop was not that different from how you 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.840 would get out of a plane in World War Two. 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.560 You just kind of opened up the canopy and jumped 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.479 out and then you know, opened your parachute at the 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:58.440 appropriate height right or altitude. When that's fine with planes, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.240 propeller planes, but once jets were introduced, you can't do 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.520 that because they're going so much faster than a propeller 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.559 plane does. You can't just jump out speed of sound, dude. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:13.640 So around the time the jet age began, a company 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.640 named Martin Baxter, a British aviation company, started really looking 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.520 into the idea of the ejection seat, and we have 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:27.240 that today thanks in large part to them. Hats off, Yeah, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.320 real men of genius. Uh So. An ejection seat, if 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.040 you don't know, just to put it very simply, is 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.040 a seat that is ejected from the aircraft ob jet, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.240 can be a helicopter. Um. And it's a very much 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.960 a last second maybe not last second, but it's the 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.560 last ditch effort to save yourself when you know that 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.160 that aircraft is going down, right, Yeah, it's the that's 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:58.480 your last resort. You don't do that frivolously because number one, 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.360 airplanes are expense Yeah, they're also very dangerous when they 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.680 crash land. Yeah, and you really I think it's probably 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.560 bad form to scuttle your plane when you still have 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.120 control of it. Yeah, I think so. Like, hey, I 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.280 wonder what this thing does. Um. And the article points 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.600 out and it's once you really read this thing, it's 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.200 really true. It's one of the most complex parts of 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.080 an aircraft. Could be thousands of parts in some of these, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.760 and the object is to get the pilot out and 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.120 then disattached from that seat without hitting any part of 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.400 the aircraft. So like up and out in a way 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.560 out of harm's way, at which point, um you become 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.400 a parachuter. Yeah, that's that's exactly right. You want to 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.920 get the pilot into the position to just parachute down 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.480 into the ground, and it all happens and under four seconds, 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.160 and about two to three of those seconds is the 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.720 actual parachute aspect, Like the ejection part is all in 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.679 about a second and a second and a half. It's 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.920 pretty pretty amazing, and we're gonna tell you how it works. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.960 So the process of it is fairly simple. The procedure, right, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.920 it's like, just get the pilot out of the plane 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.440 above it, out of the way of the plane crash, yeah, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.920 and let the parachute happen to its thing. Right. But 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.800 when you look at the mechanisms involved in this, it's 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:26.319 extremely detailed, especially since when you had the first microprocessor 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.640 in charge of ejection seats. It's really neat. Yes, So 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.160 let's talk about ejection seats. Let's talk about the basics. 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.640 You've got. First of all, the seat, Yes, the seat 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.640 is connected. It's in the cockpit obviously, and it's attached 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.559 to rails um by by way of some rollers. So 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.040 you might think like the seats just like bolted to 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.440 the floor. It's not. It's on rollers on these rails 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.360 because those rails and rollers are going to do the 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.720 initial guidance of the chair at the proper angle out 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.360 of the aircraft. Right. You can't just go up, you 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.319 can't just go forward, you can't just go back right. 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.240 And when you go up those rails, you actually have 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.640 to go at a certain amount of speed, and that 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.480 speed has to be slightly more than the aircraft is 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.480 going or else you're not going to clear the cockpit. Yeah, 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.240 So to do that, you have what's called the catapult, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.960 which is usually a charge. Yeah, that's what gets you 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.160 going up the rails and initially out. Um. Then there 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.960 will be a secondary rocket that that shoots you up 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.200 another couple of hundred feet and clear the tail of 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.920 the plane and everything. Um. And it does it quick too, 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:38.920 It does it really quick. And this is all This 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.320 whole system is called an A E S and Assisted 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.679 Egress system egress meaning exit or a way out. Um, 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.000 little on the nose, but I get it. Yeah, that's 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:52.840 the military. Um. And Uh, the canopy is you know, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.040 if you've ever seen like a fighter jet, they've got 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.520 the clear clear canopy above them where they like wave 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.959 and like give the thumbs upside in the black Power 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:02.880 sign and all that stuff. Yeah, where they shoot a 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.480 bird at the Russian is in top Gun. Remember they 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.880 flew right on the upside down right above them. That 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:13.800 seemed almost incredible. It's very incredible. Yeah, and probably not real. Well, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.240 that's what I mean, Tony Scott r I p um. 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.200 So you got the canopy, and the problem with the 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.880 canopy is it shouldn't be there when you're trying to eject. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.240 It's right, So part of the assisted egre system is 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.760 the canopy actually uh blowing and getting the heck out 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:33.360 of the way. If you don't have a canopy, you 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:38.000 might have an escape hatch built into the roof. And um. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.200 You do all this by pulling a lever either between 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:42.960 your legs or by your side or in the case 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.320 of Top Gun. I looked at the clip today. It's 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:49.320 too two loops behind their head that they pulled. Or 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.240 sometimes you might pull a face curtain down in front 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.880 of your face, which serves two purposes. It gets the 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.040 whole system moving and protects your face. And it's not 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:02.679 like a veil, no, it's like it's sturdy. Yeah. Well, 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:04.280 and I think of, like, you know what I think 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.160 of when I think of curtain and planes, I think 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.120 of like what they used to separate first class from 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.040 from coach. We don't want this to bereta. So here's 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.160 this black Lacey. He's like, I don't. I don't want 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.040 to see having to bail out. So those are some 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.120 of the ways. You know, there's all different kinds of systems, 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.400 but that's generally how it works. Okay, so we got 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.360 the general part before we go. Any let's do a 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.240 message break and let's do that. Yeah. They's about to 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:40.120 get really good though. Mm hm. Okay, So them's the basics. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.040 We're talking about the basics. Yeah, let's get into the 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.680 nuts and bolts of this as it were. Yeah, and 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:51.200 bolts will come into play actually specifics. Um. So let's 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:52.920 talk about the seat. You've got your bucket, which is 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.960 where you sit. Um it. Also the seat comes with 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.240 survival equipment, which is kind of nice. Yeah, I licked 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.160 it up. Some survival packs have like oxygen, so if 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.960 you are bailing out and you're you're not attest to 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.360 oxygen at a high altitude, you're gonna need it. Um. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.679 They have rifles in them. Which is just cool um blankets. 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.560 What I don't get is the seat ejects from the person. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.880 So is the safety pack this stays attest Okay, so 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.000 you're still in a sitting position with this thing attached 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.960 to you or it's a test your back Okay, Yeah, 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.719 I was confused by that too. I'm glad you took 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.560 the time. Um, we cover the canopy. The catapult is 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.080 obviously what initiates it, and it's operated with, like you said, 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.360 ballistic cartridge. There's a lot of explosions going. You're riding 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.240 a bullet right then, yeah, pretty much, then you're going 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.160 to catapult the rails. You got your drug parachute, which 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.880 is a small parachute five two to five ft in 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:52.440 diameter that it initially pops out to uh, sort of 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.880 balance you and make sure you're not just flying all 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:56.480 over the place and slow you down a little bit, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:58.520 right because I mean, if you're going in at even 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.160 a slight angle at the speed of sound, possibly, yes, 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.160 you need to slow down kind of quick. And the 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.199 drug parachute is just that little one like uh, then 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.040 the drags that's exactly what it is. And sometimes you 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:14.640 know how they'll have like a small one, and then 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.280 a big one. They have that too on injection seats 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.560 as well. And then the drug parachute also very commonly, 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.520 um will trip the larger parachute too after a certain 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.280 speed is reached. That's right. Um, what else, man, You've 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.840 got your environmental sensor, which will get into how all 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.480 this works. Um, But that is a device that tracks 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.200 airspeed and altitude. Um, it doesn't just shoot you up 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.360 and say I hope it's hope it's okay up there 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.600 right exactly? And then it also depending on the readings 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.800 it gets for your air speed and altitude, it'll it'll 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.520 trip like a certain type of sequence. So like if 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.400 you're at a very high altitude, there'll be a certain sequence. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.600 If you're at a low altitude but going a very 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.040 fast speed, there will be a certain sequence, and so on. 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.600 And there's a car called modes of ejection. Well we 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.480 might as well go and cover that. It's Um, there's 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.200 something called and I had to look this up. It 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:16.760 was named for physicists Honree Peito, but um, everyone calls 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:23.000 them uh pedd or pidot tubes when it really should 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.840 be Peto tubes because he was French. But these are 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.720 when the when the sequence begin, it travels up the 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.400 rails and exposes these tubes and they measure air pressure 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.720 and the differences in pressure to determine like how fast 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.400 you're going and like which of these modes to enact 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.160 that we're talking about. So that that's the that's part 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.240 of the environmental center, and it sends that information of 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.720 the recovery sequencer, which is basically the chip that controls 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.960 the process. That's right. Um, So what are the three modes? Well, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.760 there's low altitude low speed, which is less than two 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.480 fifty knots at less than fifteen thousand feet. No need 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:03.800 for a drug parachute. You barely even need an injection 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.360 seed at that point, you know. Um. There's mode too, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.920 which is low altitude high speed for when you're like, 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.200 you know, Maverick or something like that, just going really 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.960 fast but low UM. And then there's high altitude any speed, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:24.520 known as the scariest mode. Right. And so the modes 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:29.080 are all based on you'll notice two things altitude and 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:35.720 um speed velocity right. Um. And you put these things 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:40.880 together and you create a graph and inside the graph, 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:46.920 inside the the arc that's formed that's called the envelope, 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:52.320 and anything inside the envelope is um safety. Like it's 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.320 been proven, it's tested that if you follow this certain 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:01.080 sense of certain sequence of events for this mode, within 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.359 this altitude and this air speed, you're gonna most likely 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.680 be fine. That's right. If you go outside of that, 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.280 you are what's known as pushing the envelope. Is that 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.160 where that came from? That's awesome? It is. I thought 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.440 that was when you, like, we're super cool during negotiations 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:19.359 and you would just write down what you wanted and 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:24.480 push the envelope across the table. That's pushing your luck. Okay, wow, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.680 I love that. You know me and word origins. Yeah, 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:28.239 I thought you'd like that when I saw it, and 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:32.760 I was like, Jack's gonna love it. So let's back 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.879 up a bit and uh start with with the bailout. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.160 Your planes not doing well, you want to eject planes. 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.720 Not your plane is sick. You want to eject and 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.360 you pull the ejection handle. That sets off what we've 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.119 already talked about, that first explosion to catapult you up 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.879 the rails and into the air. And then there is 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:58.240 an under seat rocket motor that actually propels you even further. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:17:59.920 And when you watch this thing in slow motion. It's 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.840 you know, serious rocket propelled action going on under your butt. Yeah, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.800 and sometimes it's two stages, like the catapult and then 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.960 the rocket, but it's all in the same source. But yeah, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.760 it's basically shot shooting you. So you go off on 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.840 a bullet and then a rocket. Yeah, that's what happens 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.280 when you're ejecting in like you said, within the first 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.119 half to one and a half seconds. Yeah, that's what 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.280 all this happens in the canopy obviously has been jettisoned 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.120 at this point, and that's a really cool thing to Like, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.480 these things are have to functions canopy, so they're bolted 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.000 in there, and the way they're they're ejected as the 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.640 bolts are blown by little tiny explosive charges, right, that's 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.840 called lifting the canopy. Um, the bolts will blow and 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.080 the cannon people start to fly off, but then there's 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.439 another charge and another explosion towards the front that just 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.560 shoots it off in another direction away from you as 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.240 you're ejecting. All this is just so cool, man, how 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.680 fast it happens, how complicated it all is. Yeah, because 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:02.040 think about that, Like the computer sequencers still needs to 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.400 know what mode to follow, so like when that canopy 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.040 is starting to blow, it's taking the data readings and 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.560 deciding all this is going on in like a second, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.280 a tenth of a seconded um. So lifting the canopy 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.679 is one way you can still become injured. You can 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.359 still run into the canopy, um I, just from blowing 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.720 the bolts. So there's another mode, um or another means 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.320 of getting rid of the canopy. And that's just shattering it. Yeah, 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.880 that's when it basically explodes. And uh, it's like you've 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.560 got chicken wire, but the chicken wire is explosive. Yeah, 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:39.280 just just evaporate. Yeah, well done, evaporate the slipstream. Just 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.159 makes it go by by really quickly. Um So for 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:47.800 all intents and purposes. Uh. And then we also mentioned 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:49.639 earlier if there is no canopy, there will be an 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.760 explosive hatch that basically that's the same thing that seems 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.960 the least safe to me, why because you can't see 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.479 through it. An explosive hatch makes me think of like 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.760 some really heavy thick steel that, yes, you can't see through, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.680 and that is just really a hole in another bit 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.439 of heavy thick steel that you might bump into on 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.480 your way out, like like an escape hatch from a submarine. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.159 That's what I think of when I think of a 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.800 hatch like that on a plane. You know, give me 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:26.719 a shattering canopy. You want it to dissolve above your head. Evaporate, evaporate. Alright, 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.760 So then once you're out from the rails, uh, that 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.080 secondary the rocket's gonna take you depends on your weight 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.280 A hundred to two hundred feet up to safe safely 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.920 clear you and um, I wish we had more recent 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.160 stats than this, but we have one from that said 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.879 that they had a success rate or I saw that 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.680 four d and sixty three injections. I saw that that's 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.560 a kind of standard for study from like I think 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:53.440 two thousand six or something like that, and they found 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.479 about eighty nine point four. And the bad news is 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.760 the other ten percent means you've probably died. Yeah, you know, 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.640 so it's either success or you die. Yes, I think 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.080 that's pretty much the I think saving your life through 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.280 the correct series is successful. Like if you're injured or whatever, 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:17.720 I think they still generally count that as success. Um. 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.760 So where are we man? So we're at the drug parachute. 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.720 The drug gun fires a metal slug and it pulls 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.000 out this little drug parachute. And then like we said, 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.960 then there's the secondary shoot that I think the drug 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:35.840 nnects that, right, yeah, the second they like the main shoot. UM, 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.040 so you get the main shoot out before this happens. Though. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.679 Think about this when you are shot out on a 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.000 bullet and then on a rocket and you're going up 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.880 to I don't know, mark two, mark three, MAK one 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:58.440 is seven. UM. That's speed of sound like supersonic travel. Um. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:00.320 And we have planes that can go a lot faster 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.639 than that. When you exit the plane like that, UM, 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.479 it's very easy for your seat to start to tumble 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:10.800 and move around and spin or your limbs. Let's say, 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.719 well we'll get to that. Just the seat itself. If 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.840 everything's going encoding, the plant plant can still tumble and 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:20.160 and this the wind resistance it meets can just push 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.359 it around in all sorts of weird angles. So there's 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:28.399 something called a Vernier rocket, right, and it's it is 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.520 a rocket that just kind of fires like um, remember 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.640 on Apollo thirteen when they were um like shooting off 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:39.719 the little booster rockets like need correct the yaw and 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:44.280 all that and pitch. That's what this rocket does. UM. 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.879 Or these rockets, I should say. It stabilizes the seat 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:50.359 and keeps it from spinning and tumbling and makes it 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.280 stay up and down exactly so it knows what it's doing, 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:59.160 just like your smartphone. Oh, yes, that what the compass 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:03.160 thing is. Yeah really well, I mean yeah, plus when 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.080 you tilted, it knows to go sideways. And yeah, I 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.359 mean I'm sure that or I hope the dejection seats 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:13.959 have a little more advanced systems. But yeah, gyroscope. Yeah, okay, 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.760 I never thought about that. Uh, maybe not a gyroscope, 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:19.960 but something that functions in that way. People are like, 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:22.520 that's not a gyroscope. We'll find out, Yeah, we sure, 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:26.920 well many times over. Okay, so Chuck, let's talk about 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:29.680 the physics of all this. Well, first we got to 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.680 cover the seat man separator motor. And that's actually once 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.239