Abstract: A parachute system for an airman ejected from an aircraft in an ejection seat includes at least one drouge parachute housed within a rigid hollow container. In conventional manner, the drogue parachute is connected by lines with releasable attachments on the seat, one of the lines being further connected with the main parachute so that the latter will be deployed after release of said attachments. The container is formed as a projectile mounted in a gun mounted on the ejection seat. The container has, at its end facing away from the direction in which it is fired, a closure connected with the lines and with the drogue parachute. When the container and closure are fired from the gun, and the closure is arrested abruptly by the lines, the container continues in its trajectory whilst the drogue parachute is drawn from the container and deployed by the lines.

Abstract: An arm restraint system for an aircraft ejection seat comprises triangular nets, each secured at one of its corners to a respective upper point on the side of the seat back and at another of its corners to a respective lower point on the side of the seat back. The remaining corner of each net is secured to one end of a respective retraction line which passes through a respective reversing arrangement at the front of the respective side wall of the seat, along a respective conduit extending along the side of the seat, to gas-powered line-retraction device mounted in the seat back. In the normal position, each line, from its point of attachment to the net, extends through an eye provided on a respective projectile carried by the seat.

Abstract: Each of two aircraft ejection seats, initially mounted in a side-by-side arrangement in an aircraft, has a primary rocket motor for accelerating the seat/airman combination on ejection, by producing a thrust vector substantially through the center of gravity of the combination, and having a substantial component along that axis of the seat/airman combination about which the combination is rotationally balanced, which lies closest to parallelism with the vertical center line of the airman. To ensure separation, upon ejection, between the two ejection seats, each has, in addition to its primary rocket motor, a lateral thrust rocket motor arranged to produce a transverse thrust vector which passes through said axis at a position spaced from said center of gravity, so as to produce a rotational moment acting on the combination, whereby the two seats are caused to move in respective arcs diverging from one another, but without spinning about said axis.

Abstract: An energy absorbing seat arrangement, particularly for a helicopter, in which a seat pan is carried by a frame slidably mounted on parallel upwardly extending pillars secured to the helicopter. In normal conditions, downward sliding of the frame on the pillars is prevented, in one embodiment, by metal rods fixed with respect to the pillars, and extending through drawing dies fixed with respect to the seat frame. In a variant the rods and dies are replaced by a deformable metal tube and a mandrel extending through the tube. In the event of a crash in which rapid downward movement of the helicopter and the pillars is halted suddenly, the seat and seat frame continue to move downwardly, sliding along the pillars, while drawing of the rods through the dies, or drawing of the mandrel through the deformable tube, to dissipate the kinetic energy of the seat and its occupant relatively gradually.

Abstract: An aircraft ejection seat system which incorporates means for permitting deployment of a main parachute at the end of a delay after ejection and a mode selector mechanism operable to permit such deployment at a shorter predetermined time after ejection if ejection takes place at low speed and low altitude. The mode selector mechanism incorporates a piston slidable along a bore to operate a firing pin to fire a cartridge and thus initiate the earlier deployment of the parachute. Means for sensing barometric pressure, air speed, and deceleration are arranged, if the sensed value indicates the longer delay period is required, to project respective plungers transversely into the bore to prevent the piston from striking the firing pin. A further plunger remains projected into the bore unless auxiliary sensing means positively senses low speed and altitude.