The Ejection Site

I have included a pair of photos Chris took right after he recieved the seat showing the partially disassembled seat. This allows for viewing of the main beam assembly showing the wide inertia reel unit spanning the beams above the bucket raising/lowering motor. The drogue gun unit is clearly visible with the barrel removed near the top of the left beam. Also well shown is the seat bucket mounts which are a pair of tubes mounted in front of the main beams with a set of four bolts that extend forward into the seat bucket to allow the bucket to be easily removed in the cockpit for maintainance. These bolts are attached to two cross mounted units which are raised and lowered by an electrical motor.

In the picture of the front of the seat the ejection handle is visible above the clear plastic casing which normally holds the two machanically-fired gas initiators which start the ejection process. The gas from these cartridges is vented through hoses under the bucket into a set of sliding tubes called trombones on the sides of the beam assembly and up to the sear removal initiator on the top of the main beam. This is visible in the pictures of the partially disassembled seat. Note the yellow flaps on the back of the seat bucket covering the tops of the trombone connections in this picture. The catapult cartridge initiator has been removed and the opening into the catapult chamber is visible under the sear removal assembly with its redundant gas lines on the top of the beams.