Scope

The ejection seat is designed as an escape system for fighter bombers IAR - 93 and IAR - 99, in case of aircraft damage. The ejection seat equips any fighter bomber, provided that all mounting and operating conditions are complied with.

   General data

Craiova, 17 March 1988

The testing team together with pilots Ionescu Mihai and Tamas Gheorghe  (standing, in the middle, wearing grey flight jackets) after the first SC-HV-00 ejection from an aircraft. Vasilica the crash-test dummy is in front of the group, on the ground.

The following is a translation of the last two parts of an article with the title “History of a Big Achievement: The Ejection Seat“  written by Commander (ret.) eng. Eugen Taujan which was published in the magazine “Orizont Aviatic” Nr. 10, August 2003.
Additional notes to this article are between […]

 In Romania

At the proposal of the Yugoslav side the Martin-Baker seat was chosen, this being conformal with the Romanian’s side needs, which was looking for Western technology.

Beginning in 1975, the first Martin-Baker equipment started arriving in Romania.

In 1981 a group of engineers and technicians, among them the writer of this article, were sent to the Martin-Baker company to follow a training course as specialists and ejection instructors. I can say that the idea to realize such equipment in Romania was born then. But from wish to facts many years would pass.

In 1985, when Ceausescu ordered the speeding up of the total indigenous integration program for the IAR-93 aircraft, trough assimilation of the manufacturing of Western technology equipments, allocating enormous financial, material and human resources, the developing of what was to be the first Romanian ejection seat took a major share of the aeronautical industry efforts. The INCREST institute received the task to realize this ambitious project. From mid-1985 until the end of 1987, several experimental models were built and tested. A sloped ramp of 20 meters was built and a two-seater IAR-93 [serial 600] underwent modifications to the rear cockpit in order to allow ejections on the ground and in flight. The first test on the ramp with a humanoid dummy took place on 21 October 1985, and from a plane taxiing with 100km/h on 04 March 1988. The plane was manned by the chief test pilot Lt. Col. Ionescu Mihai, who had the task to fire the seat with the dummy. Although this kind of test was a first for the team, the pilot managed to stop the plane in the space of the runway, after launching the seat, while the dummy was descending serenely with his chute on the airfield.

On 17 March 1988 took place the first ejection in flight of a humanoid dummy in a Romanian seat. The flight was made by Lt.Col. Tamas Gheorghe, another seasoned test pilot. Ejection was at 2000m and 500km/h, being the 25^th test. Until the seat was homologated 57 tests with dummy were done, of which 12 in flight. These tests were done by CIZ (Centrul de Incercari in Zbor = Center for Flight Testing) at Craiova, involving all the resources of the unit.

The test pilots proved that they were real professionals. After launching the seat they had to get back at the airfield with the rear cockpit opened and the ejection rod extracted, which produced a certain discomfort. The carrier plane was always escorted by 2 other planes which videotaped the tests.

Unexpected events did happen, but all ended well thanks to the quick reaction of the pilots.

At the 27^th test, after the seat with the dummy left the plane, the pilot Gheorghe Tamas noticed a sudden loss of speed. In a few seconds he understood: one of the dummy’s limbs had flipped the switch for the airbrakes during the exit. The command being made from the back cockpit [meant to be used by the instructor on training flights] it could not be overridden by the pilot in the front cockpit [the trainee’s place], who landed with almost no fuel left.

But the worst case, which could have ended with a plane lost, happened on the 66^th test, when a seat from a series batch was tested. On 23 March 1990, IAR-93 DC serial 600, flown by Lt.Col. Ionescu Mihai had to launch the seat in difficult conditions, at 850 km/h from an altitude of 300m.

The ejection of the dummy and the seat went normal. Because the ejection regularly took place just before one of the ends of the runway at Craiova, after passing by the tower, the pilot turned left and flew along the runway, observing the dummy’ descent in the chute and guiding the recovery team to the touchdown point. When trying to turn, Ionescu found out that the stick was blocked in such a way that the ailerons didn’t work. He communicated that to the ground and, as there was no procedure for the situation he was in, he hit the stick hard in order to release it from whatever was blocking it, and succeeded. Upon landing it was discovered that the structural frame holding the ejection seat broke [probably because it was not designed to take the stress and loads from more than 60 ejections, but only one], and a part from the sidewall of the back cockpit temporarily blocked the rear stick.

At the end of 1988 the seat was homologated and went into service with the Air Force. Even if it looked like the Martin-Baker Mk10, thousands of hours of calculations, research, engineering and testing went into the development of the initiation cartridges, the rocket engine, parachutes and mechanisms. Nobody would give you receipts and technologies for that, we had to find them on our own, and all this under the pressure of time. The money for importing the seats was spent, the stock of British seats was zero, and the planes needed seats and parts for the seats.

Supreme Moment

However, not everybody was just as satisfied as the people who contributed in the Romanian ejection seat program. Some of the Air Force pilots were apprehensive towards flying with these seats. The fact that not a single test with a human subject was performed was a reason for some of the IAR-93 and IAR-99 pilots to distrust the seat.

Up until the beginning of the year 1990, this fact was a problem, but then the decision makers in the military aviation withdrew the SC-HV-00 seats from usage until tests involving humans will be made. For the next 4 years more in-flight dummy tests were performed, and some volunteer pilots and parachutists entered a training course in order to perform the ejections. But because there were no laws to regulate human tests, the plans were shelved. In mid-1994 the results of the ejection tests (by that time numbering over 90) were analyzed by a board lead by General Stefan Voian, which gave the verdict: the Romanian ejection seat will re-enter service with the IAR-99 aircraft.

30 March 1995 was a flying day for the pilots at Ianca AB. Aircraft number 714, equipped with SC-HV-00 seats, was appointed to perform the meteorological survey, the pilots in the cabin being Lt. Col. David Vasile in the front and Maj. Trofin Vasile in the back. Engine start-up, taxiing and take-off went without problems, but shortly after take-off troubles would start. The pilots were alerted by cockpit signals about a possible on-board fire, after that the instruments went crazy, radio links with the ground and intercom were down.

Without communication with the flight leader the two pilots, some of the best that the unit had, decided to save the plane. They did all that was humanly possible, but in vain. The aircraft started losing speed and altitude threatening the lives of the two pilots. When all their options were exhausted, they decided to eject. David Vasile in the front cockpit was the first to pull the handle, when the plane was at an altitude of 300 metres, going slightly over 500km/h and descending towards the ground at a 20 degree angle. Shortly after, at 50 metres lower, Trofin Vasile from the back cockpit followed [in the IAR-99, regardless who pulls the handle, both seats are ejected and the first to get out is the one in the front] The two seats did the job for which they were designed: they saved the lives of two men.

It was the supreme moment for all those that contributed to this achievement; it was “the moment of truth”.

David Vasile landed safely and after a routine 7-day in hospital was recovered for flight. Unfortuntly Trofin Vasile suffered injuries to the T1 lumbar vertebrae, possibly due to his body’s position on ejection or at landing. Being subjected too late to surgery, he couldn’t be recovered for flight.

Dedicated to the memory of all test pilots which the ejection seat couldn’t save.

Bucharest, July 2003

Commander (ret.) eng. Eugen Taujan