A post on NCD sent me down a rabbit hole reading about ejection seats. Do we have anyone here who can share some first-hand knowledge about the designs? I didn’t fully appreciate these products before: thousands of parts, multiple precisely timed pyrotechnic charges, and big consequences for failure. That sounds like a very stressful development project.
The picture above is a British pilot ejecting from his Harrier in Afghanistan in 2009. He was lucky and was able to resume flying.
It must be tremendously stressful to pull the eject handles, knowing you can’t take it back. You’ll be shorter for the rest of your life, you may never fly again, it’s just plain dangerous, and it is an admission that you weren’t up to saving the plane. (Though I am sure most of the time the plane truly wasn’t saveable). And all that deciding in just a few seconds.