Deacon Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Looking good Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 (edited) By the by, I understand the original lockheed ejection seat ejected downwards; I'm not sure how on earth this worked; did the seat literally emerge from the bottom of the forward fuselage? Yes, the original Lockheed seat had a cutter on the bottom and there was a deliberately weak piece of sheet metal directly underneath (The B-47's Navigator had a similar setup). As far as I understand, this panel was never changed even after they changed to the upwards ejecting seat which is why the F-104 cockpit does not have a floor. The original seat ejected downwards due to fears that an upward ejection would not clear the T-tail. This led to all sorts of difficulties whenever ejection became necessary at low altitudes so Lockheed designed a seat that would definitely clear the tail and Starfighter pilots the world over rejoiced. Edited September 13, 2012 by Jessica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Jessica is right: the original arrangement for downward ejection was retained. In case of maintenance the seat was removed from the aircraft through the bottom panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulR Posted October 27, 2012 Author Share Posted October 27, 2012 evening all, well haven't posted for a while because work has been hellishly busy. Anyway some cockpit shots all OOB, apart from tape seatbelts. unfortunately, my new camera has gone down the tubesx, and I've lost the next few shots of showing the painting of the fuselage. this finished now;pics to follow via mobile camera... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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