Scimitar Ejection Seat Photographs

[Scimitar F1]

The Scimitar had a MB Mk4c ejection seat and can I find good photographs - not a chance. I have found one on Thunder and Lightnings taken through the canopy of the Yeovilton example.

 

Does anyone have photographs or the contact details for the chap who has a restored cockpit of one? We have tried Martin Baker themselves with no luck.

 

Many Thanks in Advance!

 

Will

[neilh]

Try the BDAC Museum at Old Sarum. They have a Scimitar cockpit - Exhibits (boscombedownaviationcollection.co.uk).  I went there for a model show last summer and it's a great museum to clamber into a number of cockpits. Might be worth a drive from Kent.  Can't remember he state of the seat in the Scimitar though.

[Ossington 2]

I think that Lightnings have Mk. 4 seats. Dunno about the lower case 'c' though. Also Mirages.

[Scimitar F1]

6 hours ago, neilh said:

Try the BDAC Museum at Old Sarum. They have a Scimitar cockpit - Exhibits (boscombedownaviationcollection.co.uk).  I went there for a model show last summer and it's a great museum to clamber into a number of cockpits. Might be worth a drive from Kent.  Can't remember he state of the seat in the Scimitar though.

Thanks - looking at photographs it is a little bare but we are planning a visit.

[Scimitar F1]

5 hours ago, Ossington 2 said:

I think that Lightnings have Mk. 4 seats. Dunno about the lower case 'c' though. Also Mirages.

The problem is that there are lots of variations between Mk4s

[71chally]

12 hours ago, neilh said:

Try the BDAC Museum at Old Sarum. They have a Scimitar cockpit...

I wouldn't like to trust that as a source, the cockpit is actually of a rare prototype 544 machine, it may never have had a 4C seat, and really there's no saying if it has a Scimitar type seat fitted at all.

 

MB MK4s are very common, having been used on Lightnings, Sea vixens, Hunters, J Provosts etc, but the sub variant is important and can look quite different to other variants.

@Scimitar F1 I would make a request to the FAA Museum if you need to get this right, they might even have a 4C seat out in their large storage facility, or have taken pictures of their Scimitar cockpit, or even manuals.

There used to be a seat collector (Nick?) that had a great collection of MB seats and had a very illustrative webpage, but I can't find it anymore, sadly.

[Scimitar F1]

15 minutes ago, 71chally said:

@Scimitar F1 I would make a request to the FAA Museum if you need to get this right, they might even have a 4C seat out in their large storage facility,

Thanks @71chally That is exactly what I have done. Fingers crossed!

 

There appears to be different types that the Scimitar was fitted with - am thinking did they use the same seat as the Sea Vixen? They would have served on carriers at the same time.

[71chally]

Doubt they were exactly the same and certainly different type designations.  The Sea Vixen seats are a minefield in themselves, there being at least four different sub-variants, and of course the observers seat was different to the pilots seat.

I know the Scimitar went through at least one seat mod. but don't know if that made it look different.

 

[Julien]

There used to be a great Italian Site for ejection seats but its gone