F-104 downward ejection seat testing. Designers weren´t sure that a "conventional" upwards firing seat would clear the T-Tail, so they came up with this. In practice, it didn´t work, so they were changed to updated "normal" ejection seats when these became available.🎥 jacksmachiningreveng

Soviet crews called the original Tu-22 (NATO Blinder) “the maneater” largely because of its downward-firing ejection seats and the deaths that followed. The aircraft was hard to land (high approach speed, poor visibility over the long nose). Combined with an escape system that only worked at altitude, the loss rate was ugly. Common figures: of ~311 built, around 70 written off; in Long-Range Aviation alone, 31 aircraft lost, 44 dead, only 45 successful ejections. Isolated compartments meant other crew often did not even know the pilot had already left.

THanks for the info Sir. I recall a feature on this one in this book, which says a lot on how bad it was. (To help, combat performance wasn´t remarkable either)

If I remember correctly, test pilot Ivan Kinchloe was killed attempting to eject using one of these at Edwards. He was one of the favorites to be an Apollo astronaut. Many think he could have been first on the moon. We will never know.

Never occurred to these fools that a high number of life saving escapes were needed at V1 and V2.

Downward ejection seems reckless, but the T-tail left few options. What specific failure made them abandon it?

Engine failure on t/o: roll inverted and eject.. But this muscle memory training killed several pilots when an upward ejection seat was installed… these pilots performed the old procedure under stress, rolling inverted, and ejecting into the dirt.

This to me seems like a not typical move for Kelly Johnson. I would have expected him to insist on a better conventional ejection seat rather than this compromise.

Yoh artık.🤔

F-104 Starfighter = Witwenmacher, Widowmaker