An ejection seat is an emergency escape system, mainly fitted to military aircraft, that propels a pilot or crew member clear of the aircraft using an explosive charge or rocket motor before a parachute deploys for the descent to the ground. German and Swedish designers built early ejection systems during the Second World War, but James Martin of Northern Ireland and his company Martin-Baker developed the seat that made ejection reliable and practical for widespread use; on July 24, 1946, company fitter Bernard Lynch made the first live ejection-seat test, bailing out of a Gloster Meteor jet. Martin-Baker seats were fitted to prototype and production aircraft from the late 1940s onward, and the system saw its first use in an actual in-flight emergency in 1949 during testing of the experimental Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 flying wing.
Facts
Patent or First-Use Date SignificanceMartin-Baker, the seat's manufacturer, has documented thousands of lives saved by its ejection seats across dozens of air forces worldwide. 1 Connections
In Field
Source Ejection Seat (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Ejection Seat (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory section
The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker system took place on 24 July 1946, when fitter Bernard Lynch ejected from a Gloster Meteor Mk III jet.
Pilot safety section
In 2026, Martin-Baker claimed to have "saved over 7,700 lives" and that its club "now has over 6,000 registered members".
In Field: Aerospace Engineering, Categories
Aircraft emergency systems
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