Here's how you bailed out from a
World War II fighter
These days, when things go south while in a fighter, pilots are
trained to reach for the loops that trigger their ejection seats. You just give it a yank and the
ejection seat takes it from there, launching you from the stricken plane and
setting you up for a safe(ish) landing on the ground (hopefully far from people
you've just bombed or strafed).
Easy as pie —
but it's still something you don't wanna do.
But in World
War II, the process was very different. Today's ejection seats use technology
that didn't exist in that era, so much of the process had to be handled
manually, which was extremely hazardous.
When future
president George H. W. Bush's Grumman TBF Avenger was hit by enemy over
Chichijima, the other two men on board were immediately killed and he had to
bail out. In the chaos, Bush ejected improperly and collided with the plane's
tail — luckily, his injuries were minor compared to what could've happened. He
drifted to the ocean below tethered to a parachute and was eventually rescued.
The method of properly ejecting from a World War II-era fighter
varied depending on the plane. What worked for a P-38 Lightning wouldn't work
for a F4U Corsair. But, in general, the procedure was to slow the plane down as
much as possible and manually open up the canopy. That's when things got real
tricky.
A pilot's natural instinct is to use their foot to jump from the
side of the cockpit, but that would expose him or her to the slipstream — and
that means a collision with the tail. Instead, pilots must use their hands on
the side of the cockpit and roll over the "wall." Then, the pilot
waits to clear the plane (usually with a ten count) before pulling the ripcord,
deploying a parachute.
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