RAAF-Give me your heavy women

A recent USAF statement (PDF) shows that the F-35 ejection system needs a pilot of about 136 pounds minimum for the flight profile of the ejection seat to work.

This was kind of always known for us that have observed the program for years. Ejection-seats do a lot of things well. But there is always an upper and lower limit. You can also eat your way out of the cockpit.

Here is a summary of the issue facing the F-35 and ejection survival.

"The seat needs enough oomph to get the heaviest pilot in the 95th percentile range out of the airplane in the worst-case scenario (which I believe is that in which the lift fan takes a poo and the jet starts falling out of the sky while flipping ass-over-teakettle).

This means a lot of acceleration for the lightest pilot, which in combination with a heavy helmet creates an unsafe condition.

It's only a "problem" because it doesn't meet the requirement, which is to accommodate 95 per cent of the US pilot candidate population, with nude body weights between 103 lbs and 245 lbs. No other fighter was designed to this, and I think the only ejection-seat-equipped aircraft that does is the T-6A."

Emphasis added.

I wrote this over 6 years ago.




RAAF-Give me your heavy women

September 10, 2009

If Australia gets the F-35, the kind of woman that the RAAF wants for a fighter pilot (updated link "Women: RAAF wants you for its top guns" (The Australian *) will have to be heavy. How heavy? Probably over 150 pounds is safe.

Why? The ejection system proposed for the F-35 as it exists today, won’t be able to handle pilot weights much less than that without risk of serious injury on ejection. 136 pounds would be risky. The lighter the pilot weight, the faster the seat accelerates. It will be interesting to see how the F-35 program addresses this issue.

Bill Sweetman, No Women-Maybe, JSF ejection faces challenge of low-weight pilots, Defence Technology International, September 2009 Pg.22

Also today, in other news... Ten Things You Should Know About the Air Force’s F-35 Propaganda Effort.

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*= Quote from the 2009 article in The Australian:

"THE chief of the Royal Australian Air Force yesterday appealed for more women to try out for elite fast jet pilot selection, saying he hoped to soon see the country's first graduate female fighter pilot.

While the army is considering expanding its job listings for women recruits to include possible combat roles, the RAAF's doors have been open since the early 1990s and aspiring female pilots should feel encouraged to try out for the demanding selection program, Air Marshal Mark Binskin said.

That need has acquired a growing urgency with the anticpated arrival next year of the first batch of 24 new state-of-the-art F/A-18F Super Hornets.

An order for 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) is expected to be approved by the Rudd government by the end of the year to replace the aging F-111 strike aircraft, to be retired next year.

While the RAAF's overall recruitment figures are encouraging, Air Marshal Binskin said he had hoped the service would have graduated its first female fast jet pilot by now.

"I would love to have some female fast jet pilots," he said.

"If there is anyone out there that wants to do it, start applying now."
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F-35 reading list.


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