The LW-3B from North American Aviation/Rockwell is a rather unique ejection seat in several ways. A follow-on to the LW-1, and LW-2, the LW-3B was developed for use in the OV-10 Bronco aircraft. The OV-10 is a tandem cockpit propeller driven aircraft.
The seat consists of a seat bucket, seat back, catapult box and catapult sections. The parachute is located on the seat back to one side of the beam assembly. For lateral separation between cockpit stations, the parachutes are located on opposite sides of the backs for the two stations. This offsets the center of mass of the seat/man mass and allows for the seats to tilt away from each other.
The survival kit is located in the seat bucket section. At seat/man separation, the survival kit is unlatched, as is the seat back and they leave the seat bottom and seat beam box. The aircrew decends to the ground with the survival kit and seat back still attached. This provides some protection for decent through trees.
The seat is fitted with an integral canopy breaker plate above the headrest. The harness is a separate torso harness type. Originally the seat used Rocket Jet fittings as can be seen here. Other seats were fitted with USN-style Koch fittings.
The seat slides on four sets of slides mounted on brackets for the catapult on the cockpit bulkheads.
| Front view |
| Right side view |
| Rear view |
| 3/4 right Side |
| The catapult and bulkhead fittings. |
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