Thanks both.Sounds like compression rather than the spine bending but even so sounds ****ing dangerous and a once only occurrence, or else
For those of you interested in what type of injuries occur to the human body whilst ejecting from an aircraft, there is a short section on this topic in this book: It was written by an Aviation Medicine specialist, the chief instructor of the AvMed course I attended. He was ex-military. Basically, I quote: "One of the major injury types associated with ejection is vertebral fracture". "In general, the aviation medicine literature suggests that the spinal fracture rate for ejection is in the region of 18-35%". "In practical terms, aircrew ejecting from a stricken aircraft have at least a 1 in 5 chance of sustaining a vertebral fracture" . A graph from the book above showing the most affected vertebra (using RAAF data):
@DoctorEvil I just looked up some RAF data for more modern rocket seats and the spine injury rate looks comparable (30%). Of course the design changes mentioned below might have helped reduce some of the other injuries going forward. I imagine for military jets the survival rate had they stayed in the aircraft was close to zero in most cases, so it is still a remarkable piece of kit - to remove a human from such an extreme environment/situation quickly and keep them alive with relatively minor injuries compared to a crash scenario. Methods: A total of 232 Royal Air Force accident reports were accessed and aircrews' injuries were related to the aircraft parameters of ejection, aircrew anthropometry, and the ejection seat and parachute dynamics. Ejection sequences were simulated using a computerized modeling tool to provide information relating to the dynamic response index, acceleration of the ejection seats, and performance of the parachutes. Results: Ejection survival was 89.2% overall, 95.7% for within envelope ejections and 23.8% for out of envelope ejections. There were 29.4% of aircrew who sustained spinal fractures. Another 14.2% of aircrew sustained a head injury and the incidence of head injury in Tornado ejectees was higher than the other aircraft types. Compared with 5.8% of ejectees from aircraft with an arm restraint system, 11.2% of aircrew sustained upper limb flail injuries from ejecting from aircraft without an arm restraint system. Arm flail injuries occurred at a higher aircraft speed at ejection compared with ejections where no arm flail injuries were sustained. There was also 18% of aircrew who sustained lower limb parachute landing injuries. Discussion: Information from this study has lead to a redesign of the Tornado ejection seat headbox, an improvement in the Tornado ejection catapult dynamics, an upgrade of escape system parachutes, and provided evidence that future aircraft should be fitted with an arm restraint system.
Bremont does the MB-II & III in collaboration with Martin-Baker and anyone can buy one of those. The MB-I is reserved for those pilots who have ejected.
Wife's Solo LC named after Lettice Curtis a female aviator, my Alt1-p2 Lancaster and Supermarine S300. The LC has beautiful coloured hands that I can never captured
Hahaha just what I was thinking. Anybody who baled out of a WW2 aeroplane from whichever side deserves something too.
I have the Wright Flyer, it’s a big watch relative to my wrist size but it contains a piece of the first powered flying machine that flew this year 120 years ago for the first time.
I love the supermarine but worry the lugs are too long for my wrist. I assume the Lanc is a limited edition ?
WoW I like that.It's vintage looking isn't it ?? I was considering getting the Sotek Broadsword but it didn't happen. My Lancaster is 43mm and a bit bigger than I would usually prefer
They said they based the design on the pocket watch they wore at the time because wrist watch’s didn’t appear till later.
Yeah air, ground crew and close relatives. I asked for QR-T to be engraved at first but changed it to his service number 2226899 I swapped the rubber strap on the S300 for a bracelet last year.
That’s so cool and really priceless. Bremont get crap from a lot of people but they way they do this is much better than the Rolex way. With Bremont you deserve it on merit and now how wealthy you are buying three to get the one you want.
I don't understand the flak they get and I stopped going on TZUK for that reason. I had a look round the boutique in Manchester and the missus and I could have come away with a few if funds had allowed. Americas cup, the Sotek, Jaguar, Hercules and Norton to name a few.
THIS! ^^^ They do seem to catch a lot of flak, some of which is deserved. But I must admit I do like their general design. Is it that people think they're too expensive for being a relatively new manufacturer? I get it, buy a 'proven' Omega or Breitling for the money, but the Bremont is still a nice watch
My wife has this top of her list for the next piece. Thankfully she has agreed to offload three or four of her collection before we buy again. https://www.bremont.com/products/lady-k-sky-bracelet