I’m writing a work of military fiction. Does anyone know the maximum speed at which a pilot could eject without being killed by the force of hitting the airstream outside - i.e., 900 mph? 1,200 mph?
Also, what if the aircraft tilted nose up upon ejection and part of the fuselage stayed in front of the pilot, shielding him from wind blast for a few seconds? Would that protect him some? Or would he smack into that piece of airplane?
When I was aircrew, we were told that if we ejected at 450 knots, we’d likely sustain injuries, and at 600 knots we’d likely die. That applied to F-4, F-15, and F-16 aircraft around 1992. Things may have changed since then.
First question may give you some info.
One of two people survived an ejection from an SR-71 at Mach 3.18…
http://www.916-starfighter.de/SR-71_Waever.htm
Not good odds, but not zero either.
on edit, mentioned in post by Hermitian.
There are a few aircraft that have ejection pods or capsules which protect the aircrew. The F-111 is one example.
The first four Space Shuttle flights were considered ‘test’ flights and the orbiter cockpit was fitted with SR-71 ejection seat systems for the two crewmen (being test flights they only had 2-man crews). The Shuttle quickly reaches speeds greatly in excess of even the SR-71 as well as while still in a much denser (i.e. lower) level of the atmosphere, so I’m not sure for how long into the flights they were considered useful. Reinforces the ‘kludginess’ of the whole Shuttle design. Being a ‘strap-on’ instead of a ‘stacked’ configuration made a much simpler and reliable escape launch system (like on Apollo) impossible.
The XB-70 Valkyrie, the first supersonic bomber, flew so fast it too had to have the crewman first sealed into escape pods before ejecting. During the catastrophic mid-air collision and breakup of one aircraft a crewman ejected and survived, but broke his arm when it got caught in the ‘clam shell’ pod closing mechanism.
I was going to say the F-111 ejects the entire cockpit with both crewmembers as a capsule so its safe to eject at maximum speed or about mach 2. There’s a site on the FB-111 crew module here.
Strictly speaking, that wasn’t an ejection (controlled egress). The plane literally disintegrated around the crew and likely blunted the force of the shock as the crew compartment decelerated prior to the crew being flung out of the aircraft in a completely uncontrolled egress.
Unprotected ejection at supersonic speeds is basically lethal due to wind shear (the differential forces between the stagnated air at the shock boundary and the flowing air attached within it) hence why the FB-111 and B-57 had separable crew modules or capsules for high speed ejection. This is exacerbated by the higher dynamic pressure at the same equivalent Mach number at high altitude, and can literally tear a body apart. There are a few stories of egress at supersonic airspeeds, but because of the conditions under which they occur it is difficult to assess exact conditions experienced, and it is generally assumed that survival occurs because the ejected pilot is shadowed by the airframe until the shock boundary is disrupted. No open ejection seat is designed for ejection at forward airspeeds in excess of about M=0.85, though they are designed to function under high spin rates and some degree of tumble (pitch and yaw motions).
Stranger
Also, SR-71 pilots wore ‘space suits’, which have a lot more protection than other pilots, so not an apple-to-apples comparison.
On many big military planes (multiple crewmen) the escape door opens so that it shields the escaping crewmen from the full air blast.
This lets them clear the plane (stuff like antennas) and doesn’t subject them to the full air blast all at once.
MSgt., USAF, ret.; 14 yrs enlisted aircrew (master aircrew wings)
The B-58 had anejection capsule, too.