-- 
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.


Paul,

I don't believe it is a zero-zero seat.  According to this website:
http://www.ejectorseats.co.uk/russia.htm it has a minimum operational base of
164 feet.


General aviation seat

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid in Russia to the problem
of safe emergency escape from sports and training aircraft, and the Sukhoi
Design Bureau has pioneered the use of ejection seats in competition acrobatic
aircraft. In June 1991, the Bureau issued a specification to NPP Zvezda for the
development of an ultra-light crew escape system for sports aircraft. It took
four years of painstaking work to create, and was designated SKS-94
(sverkhlyohkaya katapool'tnaya sistyema -ultra-light ejection system).

This system can be fitted to single-seat and multi-seat training, aerobatic and
sports aircraft and to other general aircraft. The SKS-94 includes a

telescopic ejection gun, harness tightening device, an ejection control system,
seat, headrest (in which the parachute and its deployment system are stowed),
and the parachute itself with its harness. When ejection is initiated, the
parachute actuating device ejects the headrest from which the parachute emerges,
and the pilot is extracted from the cockpit by the ejection gun by means of a
suspension system (the seat remains in the aircraft) before separating from the
ejection gun and descending by parachute.

Manufacturer and certification tests of the SKS-94 system were conducted - for
the first time in Russia - on a modified sports aircraft, a purpose-built
Su-29KS test-bed (02 Black/RA-oi48s). Before that, a complete ground test
programme was undertaken, including ejection tests with dummies -first on rigs
and then in a wind tunnel. Part of the ground test was performed on a disused
stretch of the old Ryazan highway. The cockpit section of a two-seat sports
aircraft was mounted on a truck for simulating take-off runs: 50 firings were
made in this manner, providing invaluable information on ejection at take-off.

The final stage of the manufacturer's tests was performed on the Su-29KS. Some
of the trials employed a dummy and others a live parachutist, but the aircraft
was invariably flown by Sukhoi test pilot Yevgeniy Frolov, Hero of Russia.
Nearly 20 ejections were carried out, some during the State acceptance trials.
They were performed at altitudes of 164ft to 6,550ft (50m to 2,000m) and at
speeds of 95kts to 216kts (180km/h to 400km/h). Trials were conducted with the
aircraft in a variety of flight conditions including inverted flight at 64ft
(50m). The minimum altitude for safe escape in inverted flight is 98ft (30m).
There are no similar rescue systems for light aircraft anywhere else in the
world.

The first man to demonstrate the operation of the ejection system on a ground
rig was parachute tester Sergey Pereslavtsev, Hero of Russia. On April 12, 1995,
parachute tester Vladimir Severin ejected in flight from the Su-2gKS and in so
doing, earned the title 'Hero of Russia'.

In 1995, a prototype Su-3iM-i competition aerobatic aircraft equipped with the
SKS-94 ejection system was shown at the Le Bourget air show, both statically and
in flight. The Su-31M became the world's first quantity-produced sports aircraft
equipped with an escape system. The first Su-31Ms have already been delivered to
customers in Switzerland, Italy and Slovakia, and to the Central Aeroclub of the
Russian paramilitary sports society ROSTO. (ROSTO = Rosseeyskoye oboronnoye
sportivno-tekhneecheskoye obschchestvo - Russian Defense Sports and Technical
Society. This is the successor of the Soviet-era DOSAAF (Dobrovol' noye
obschchestvo sodeystviya armii, aviahtsiiiflotu-the Voluntary Society for the
Support of the Army).

I found a few other sites with info on the topic.  Among them are:

http://www.aafo.com/racing/tech/seats/part1.htm

http://www.aafo.com/racing/tech/seats/part2c.htm

http://www.ejectionsite.com/wapmil.htm

http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/civil/su-26/history/

http://aeroweb.lucia.it/rap/Paris97/lbg97ag_sks94.jpg

The Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano is fitted with a zero-zero ejection seat
according to this site but it does not indicate a manufacturer:
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/super_tucano/

Regards,


Jack Hilditch


164 feet combined with shooting out horizontally is the tilt rotor problem.

I think the air bag idea along with a chute needs development.

Furthermore a smaller more rapidly opening chute can be employed
as you are able to hit the ground harder if the air bag works.
Millions have been spent by the auto industry so far on air bag R&D.
-- 
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2006 All world wide rights reserved.