F-35 Fatal Ejection Fear Riles Congress

[Maarkhoor]

WASHINGTON — Concern is mounting on Capitol Hill after recent tests revealed a lightweight F-35 pilot's neck could snap when ejecting at certain speeds.

The fears focus on the Martin-Baker US16E ejection seat. During testing of the new Generation 3 helmet this summer, testers discovered the risk of fatal neck injury when a lighter pilot ejects during slower-speed flights, according to a source with knowledge of the program. Testers discovered the ejection snapped the necks of lighter-weight test dummies, the source said.

Until the problem is fixed, the US military services decided to restrict pilots weighing under 136 pounds from operating the plane, Defense News first reported Oct. 1.

Since the issue emerged, lawmakers have vowed to push for increased oversight of the F-35, with one congresswoman condemning the program for "malpractice." Rep. Jackie Speier, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, slammed the Pentagon for rushing tests to field the plane prematurely.

"We're seeing these flight restrictions because the F-35's ejector seats weren't tested to the level they would be on a normal aircraft, and the Pentagon rushed to field them prematurely. This is yet another example of the kind of procurement malpractice we should be avoiding," the California Democrat said in an email to Defense News last week.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces pledged to hold an oversight hearing on the issue.

"We're having an F-35 hearing scheduled for Oct. 21. I'm certain it will show up then," Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said, noting that he was not previously aware of the ejection seat concern. "I am going to have an oversight hearing on this."

At least one F-35 pilot is affected by the weight restriction, according to Joint Program Office spokesman Joe DellaVedova, who added that the rule was announced Aug. 27. He said the issue does not affect the first and only female F-35 pilot, Lt. Col. Christina Mau, the 33rd Operations Group deputy commander.

"The bottom line is they have to get into the realm where the seat allows that weight of a pilot less than 136 pounds [to] safely eject out of the airplane," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the F-35 integration office director, told Defense News last week.

"They found some areas that, particularly at slower speeds, they were concerned about, so that drove the restriction that we have right now."

The ejection seat issue is not related to the new Generation 3 helmet, built by Rockwell Collins and delivered to the JPO in August, DellaVedova said. But a source with knowledge of the program said the added weight of the new helmet compared to the Gen 2 version aggravates the ejection seat issue.

A standard ejection is a two-stage event, according to Lockheed's F-35 website. First, an explosive charge or rocket motor integrated with the seat breaches the windscreen canopy. Second, the seat and pilot are launched upward via a rail system through the opening at a jarring rate of 12-14 Gs.

In August, testers discovered that when a lighter pilot is ejecting, the Martin-Baker seat rotates forward a bit too much, according to the source. That forward motion combined with the force of the ejection proved too much for the lighter dummies, snapping their necks.

"It's that light pilot and the center of gravity of the seat," Col. Todd Canterbury, who was commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing until June, told Defense News last week. "It all has to do with getting that center of gravity kind of located within the window, we call it, for safe seat-man separation."

Canterbury, who flew F-35 software versions 1B, 2A, 3i and 2B, stressed that the weight restriction is an interim fix and the JPO is working closely with Martin-Baker and aircraft builder Lockheed Martin on a permanent solution.

The Air Force expects that industry will provide a solution to meet the requirement, according to service spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns.

"We are interested in a solution that is viable for all our pilots and to ensure their safety to the maximum extent practical," Karns said. "It is vitally important to ensure the F-35 community has the safest ejection seat possible. We owe it to our warfighters."

In the meantime, very few pilots appear to be impacted by the problem. The three F-35 pilots at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, are not affected by the restriction, according to Maj. Brad Matherne, assistant director of operations for the 34th Fighter Squadron.

"To be honest, it doesn't affect us at all because all our pilots weigh above 136 pounds, and to my knowledge there is only one Air Force pilot that weighs less than that, at Eglin," Matherne said in an Oct. 1 interview.

For at least one international partner, the new weight restriction is not a concern. None of Norway's F-35 pilots beginning to train on the country's new jets at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, are affected by the weight limit, according to Col. Jarle Nergård, program manager for operations with the Norwegian F-35 Program Office.

Since the Norwegian Air Force has even tighter weight restrictions on its current F-16 fleet, "there isn't a single fighter pilot in the Norwegian Air Force that is affected" by the 136-pound restriction, Nergård told Defense News in an email.

Nergård also said discoveries like this are to be expected in a test program, and that the F-35 is meant to accommodate a greater range of pilot body types and weights than legacy fighter aircraft.

"The incredible amount of force involved once you have an ejection means that you are playing at the limits of human tolerance," Nergård said. "As partners, we do support the interim actions by the US Air Force as they are directly affected by the issue. We all have the safety of our pilots as our No. 1 priority."

Pilot safety is the services' top concern, US officials said.

"Safety is our No. 1 concern and we want to make sure that we give the warfighter the safest ejection seat capable out there," Canterbury, now the chief of the F-35 Integration Office Operations Division, said on Tuesday. "As we discover things, we can weigh the risk of what's acceptable and what's not, and right now, until we fully understand the implication of the seat, safety is our No. 1 priority."

Martin-Baker could not be reached for comment, and Lockheed Martin referred questions to the JPO.

F-35 Fatal Ejection Fear Riles Congress

 

[Maarkhoor]

@Windjammer @PARIKRAMA @knight11 @Oscar @Bratva

@MastanKhan @Tipu7 @Taygibay @Desertfalcon @Zibago

 

[anon45]

This same bs. Its a non-issue because the AF doesn't currently HAVE any pilots who weigh less than 136 lbs.

Nergård also said discoveries like this are to be expected in a test program, and that the F-35 is meant to accommodate a greater range of pilot body types and weights than legacy fighter aircraft.

This basically means its the same for legacy aircraft too, which would probably be why there aren't actually any pilots below the weight threshold.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

The strength of the neck muscles would always be an issue when the helmet gets heavier----.

I have seen a video of a russian ejection seat where the helmet is tethered to the seat back and at the time of ejection---the tether is pulled back in to hold the back of the head against the seat forcibly---so that prevents the neck snap---.

 

[Maarkhoor]

Exclusive: F-35 Ejection Seat Fears Ground Lightweight Pilots

@MastanKhan

 

[PARIKRAMA]

The have to find a solution to accommodate around 200-220 pounds pilots.. The present 136 pounds puts a severe restriction of finding well build and heighted pilots

 

[randomradio]

This mainly affects women pilots.

 

[Maarkhoor]

@MastanKhan @Windjammer @PARIKRAMA
This is very emotional

 

[Tipu7]

That issue has been resolved I guess..............

@gambit Your take?

 

[Maarkhoor]

SUPERSONIC EJECTION SEAT SYSTEM TESTS AT HURRICANE MESA UTAH 84222

 

[gambit]

When I joined the USAF, I was in excellent physical shape from growing up surfing and all sorts of water related activities. I was lean, as in an adult male with a 27 in waist. Today, at age 53, my waist is 29 in. Anyway, back then the AF doc had to fudge my weight UP to 130 lbs so I can enter the AF.

In flying, especially aerobatics which includes high performance jet fighters, a human body experiences physical stresses no other career fields does. You can be trained to deal with every possible stress positions except one -- ejection.

The human body can handle up to 9 gs ? Fine, we can incrementally move you from 1 g as standing still up to a 9 g turn and we can do that every day. But how are we going to do that for an ejection ? Have you ever met an astronaut who have been in orbit ? How about an astronaut who just completed training but never been to space ? No ? Then that is the odds of any of us who could possibly meet a fighter pilot who survived an ejection.

Ejection Tie Club

“There is no doubt that Martin-Baker ejection seats have been saving aircrew lives for decades. As a matter of fact, the seat that saved me was designed and built before I was even born!

At approximately 40 feet altitude, I yanked the handle on that 44 year old MB seat (I was 39 at the time) and it fired,...

Mike 'Ratso' Cariello, Ejectee #5916

Never met the guy.

Mayday! Pilots In Distress Describe 'Punching Out' : NPR

The ranks of aviators who have punched out are filled mostly by men, but one woman, Lt. Linda Maloney, ejected in 1991. She was flying a training exercise over Jacksonville, Fla., in an A-6 Intruder when the pilot of her aircraft lost control of the plane and ordered her to eject.

Pilots who've punched out join a group called the Caterpillar Club. It's a World War II-era organization founded by the maker of the ejection seats. "It was such an unusual phenomenon when it first began," explains Cross. They called it the Caterpillar Club after the silk of the parachute that saves their lives. "I think the most impressive part" he says, is that now, there are "7,000 or 8,000 lives that have been saved by ejection seats."

Not likely any of us will ever meet Linda Maloney, either.

I barely made it into the USAF because I was just under the preferred height/weight combination. Not because I was undernourished but because I was in good physical condition. On the other end, any bodybuilder will be rejected.

This WILL be resolved to allow pilots below 140 lbs to fly the F-35, but even if the physics of the ejection process and the potential for injuries or even death from the same excludes such 'low weight' pilots from flying the F-35, so what ? There are plenty of well qualified pilots who can meet that physical bar. You think American pilots are going to sue the USAF or that foreign pilots are going leave their air forces over this ? No, every pilot in the world, even civilian ones, will understand the restriction.

This is a technical issue and it is being overblown by critics of the F-35 program. Nothing more.

 

[randomradio]

Then that is the odds of any of us who could possibly meet a fighter pilot who survived an ejection.

Is it a big deal if someone survives 2 ejections?

 

[SQ8]

This WILL be resolved to allow pilots below 140 lbs to fly the F-35, but even if the physics of the ejection process and the potential for injuries or even death from the same excludes such 'low weight' pilots from flying the F-35, so what ? There are plenty of well qualified pilots who can meet that physical bar. You think American pilots are going to sue the USAF or that foreign pilots are going leave their air forces over this ? No, every pilot in the world, even civilian ones, will understand the restriction.

This is a technical issue and it is being overblown by critics of the F-35 program. Nothing more.

Thankfully nobody caught it or we have blabbering critics of another program that uses a variation of the same seat

 

[gambit]

Is it a big deal if someone survives 2 ejections?

It is a big deal for just one...

How Things Work: Ejection Seats | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

“It was the most violent thing I’ve ever felt in my life,” says one of the B-1 crew members, whom the Air Force asked me to identify as “Captain IROC.” “I lost a full inch in height,” because his spine absorbed such tremendous G-forces.

When Captain Jon Counsell had to eject from an F-15C on a training run over the Gulf of Mexico in 1995, he was going Mach 1.4, beyond the accepted parameters for success on the ACES II, which draws the line at 600 knots (690 mph). His limbs flailed so violently during the ejection that he broke his left arm, fractured his left leg in five places and dislocated both knees. Doctors thought he’d never walk again, but seven years later he’s back in the cockpit. In an exchange with the Navy, he now flies F/A-18s.

Whether after an ejection a pilot return to active flying status or not depends on the particular air force and his physical state. Most will allow a return to full flight duty if there are no lingering medical issues. But after 2 or 3 ejections, maybe the pilot should reconsider...

 

[randomradio]

It is a big deal for just one...

How Things Work: Ejection Seats | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

Whether after an ejection a pilot return to active flying status or not depends on the particular air force and his physical state. Most will allow a return to full flight duty if there are no lingering medical issues. But after 2 or 3 ejections, maybe the pilot should reconsider...

Thanks. I know this guy who survived two. He left the IN after he was told he wouldn't be flying anymore.