The History and Workings of the Modern Ejection Seat

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Eject: The History and Workings of the Modern Ejection Seat

Eject: The History and Workings of the Modern Ejection Seats
October 1, 2011 to February 5, 2012

This new exhibition at the Intrepid Museum will tell the fascinating history of ejection seats in high performance military aircraft.

Since the invention of the flying machine pilots have been mindful that this new technology was not without risk. These early aviators, as far back as 1910, were considering a means of quick escape if something should go wrong. Over the next 100 years the airplane would fly higher and faster than anybody could imagine. The speed and altitude of military aircraft has increased continually since those early days and jet aircraft now fly beyond the speed of sound and at altitudes that approached the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

This temporary exhibition will explore the development history of ejection systems and explain the split-second workings of these life saving devices. Several seats will be included in the display as well as other artifacts related to the survival needs of the air crewmen.


A Canadian Military F-18 Hornet suffers a control problem during an airshow. In this photograph the pilot has already left the aircraft. Notice the ejected canopy to far left. The stabilizing drogue chute has been deployed, and the seat rockets have brought the pilot to an upright position.	Just as the aircraft is about to impact the ground, the pilot’s main chute is beginning to be forced open by small explosive charges due to the low altitude of the ejection. The seat falls away after doing its job.	A split second after impact, the parachute is about to fully deploy at a sufficient height to ensure the pilot’s survival.


Zero-Zero eject seat test, viewed from the fron of the test cockpit mock-up in slow motion.