I spent 3 years in the United States Air Force as an Aircrew Egress Systems Technician (85-88).  After 6 weeks of basic training at Lackland AFB, TX, I spent roughly 3 months at Chanute AFB, in Rantoul, IL (since closed).  In 1985, the USAF still had in it's inventory OV-10's, A-7's, F-4's, and F-111's, all of which I had to learn something about.  In addition to those aircraft, I also received training on the B-52 and F-16.  After tech school, the remainder of my enlistment was spent at Luke AFB, about 30 miles was of Phoenix, AZ, where I was assigned to the Tactical Air Command, 12th Air Force, 832nd Air Division, 58th Fighter Wing, 58th  Component Repair Squadron, egress shop (call sign "Cobra"). The egress shop that I was assigned to was responsible for over 200 F-16's, models A through D. Roughly half of them were two seat versions (B and D models). All of the F-16's assigned to the 58th FW were split between 4 different squadrons - the 310th, 311th, 312th, and the 314th.

All F-16's are  equipped with the ACES II ejection seat.  Among the F-16's, all of the following aircraft are also fitted with this same basic seat; A-10, F-15, F-117, B-1B, B-2, and the F/A-22.  Each of these aircraft's egress systems are slightly different from the next, even though they are all based around the ACES II system.  For example, the F-16 version has it's ejection initiation handle located between the legs of the pilot, as in the picture to the left.  The ejection initiation handle is also known as the "Pull To Eject" handle.  The other aircraft mentioned all have 2 separate handles, one on either side of the seat near where the pilots knees would be.

The ejection handles that "Goose" pulls in Top Gun are actually part of what is called the Face Curtain.  Face Curtains are typically only found on Martin-Baker brand ejection seats.  The Martin-Baker seats are produced in Great Britain and are typically used by the U.S. Navy.  There are a few exceptions to this such as the USAF variants of the F-4 Phanton II.  Since the F-4 was originally produced for the U.S. Navy, a Martin-Baker seat was standard equipment.  Therefore, when the USAF purchased F-4's, the USAF ended up buying Martin-Baker seats as well.  Another non-Navy aircraft that the US Army purchased which was equipped with Martin-Baker seats was the OV-1 Mohawk.

All egress systems are designed around ballistic gas generators.  Ballistic gas generators are really nothing more than a metal can with an explosive inside, which is either ignighted by a mechanical input or gas pressure input from another device.

Like that of the F-14 seat, the F-4 seat has similar features, most notably is the face curtain and the ejection handles located above the pilots head.  The face curtain is specifically designed to perform 2 functions; 1) it assists in positioning the pilot into a "pre-ejection posture" (sitting upright), and 2) it protects the pilots face from wind blast. The Martin Baker systems are typically very complex.  The F-4 utilizes some very interesting features to get the crew member out of the airplane such as; 1) high pressure pneumatics for jettisoning the canopy, 2)  numerous mechanically fired ballistic devices, 3) several gas fired ballistic devices, etc.  During initial egress training at Chanute AFB (Rantoul, IL), the F-4 system was the most complex system being taught at the time.

One of the most unique and complex egress systems ever developed was that of the F-111.  The F-111 utilized a 3,000 pound module that balistically separated from the aircraft.  One of the most unique features about the F-111 was that it didn't use gas type initiators like the ones pictured earlier.  Along with the introduction of the F-111, also came new egress technology called SMDC.  SMDC is an acronym meaning "Shielded Mild Detonating Cord".  SMDC was a very high speed method of propagating ballistic forces from one device to another.  SMDC took the place of the stainless steel braided high-pressure hydraulic hoses which are normally used to move ballistic forces.  SMDC was a small stainless steel tube which was loaded with a very fast burning explosive.  With hydraulic hoses, prorogation speeds are around 1100 ft/sec.  With SMDC lines, this number jumps to 15,000 ft/sec.  There were several reasons for adding SMDC lines to the F-111 design, most important of which was the speed.  Reason being is that is takes more time to eject a 3000 pound escape module than it does for an individual person riding a seat.  Therefore, time is at a premium to save the crew and every effort was made to shave time off the ejection sequence.  From a maintenance point of view, SMDC lines were a real pain in the butt!  The explosive compound in the SMDC line was hard and brittle, and therefore, when handling them, if the line was bent even a small amount, it was destroyed and a new one would have to be installed. More detail about the F-111 system can be found at the following link. http://www.f-111.net/ejection.htm

The next logical step from the development of SMDC lines was to DTA lines, or Detonation Transfer Assembly.  DTA lines were almost exactly like SMDC lines except that they were lighter in weight because of the use of aluminum tube instead of the stainless tube of the SMDC.  Also, DTA lines were smaller in diameter and they used a different explosive compound than the SMDC.  The different explosive compound made the DTA line less fragile and a small amount of bending was tolerable.  Later in the development of DTA lines, a truly flexible version (the Type-F) became available.  In the late 70's and early 80's, DTA lines were exclusively used in F-16's.

Ejection seats are not designed to fit everyone.  There are obvious height and weight restrictions.  As for the image to the left, this is LOIS, the Lightest Occupant In Service.  Some of the problems that could occur if someone lighter were to ride a seat out of an airplane might be that the acceleration forces felt by the occupant could cause serious injury or death.  Or that maybe the parachute is too large and weather conditions may keep the occupant floating around if a high altitude ejection is made.  At the other end of the weight and size spectrum, being too tall could cause shoulder or collar bone injuries when the inertia real fires.  Whatever the case is, the seat/man center-of-gravity will be different for each person in the seat, making the STAPAC system on the bottom of the seat a critical component.  In the image on the left, if you look closely at the side of the seat, right at about elbow level and you will notice a blackened area just below the quick disconnect.  It would be reasonable to assume that this seat has been test fired. NOTE: I took this picture at the Dayton air show in 1997.

The aircraft on the left (serial # 83-0132) is a block 30 "C" model F-16.   It was assigned to the 312th TFTW at the time.  The camouflage paint scheme is not at all typical for USAF F-16's.  The image was taken somewhere over the 250,000,000 acre Barry Goldwater weapons range in southwest Arizona. At the time that this picture was taken, the aircraft was temporarily assigned to the Weapons Analysts wing at Nellis AFB (Las Vegas, NV), however, the aircraft was stationed at Luke AFB (Glendale, AZ).

The F-16 in the foreground of this image is the first production model aircraft (serial # 78-0001) ever built - block 5 "A" model.  This was the 12th Air Force commanders jet during the time I was in the Air Force.  It was under the care of the 310th TFTW during my enlistment.  This image was taken (I think) at Langley AFB, Virginia.

The "Seat Trajectory And Pitch Attitude Control", or STAPAC (some people incorrectly believe that STAPAC means "STAbilization PACkage"), is mounted to the bottom of the ACES II ejection seat.  It is designed to keep the seat flying in a straight trajectory.  In the case of the ACES II seat, the STAPAC is not designed to self-right the seat if the pilot were to eject while inverted, even though it is equipped with a gyroscope. In the image on the left, the gold colored cylinder at the bottom is the rocket motor of the STAPAC. It is held in-place by 2 bearings, which allows the rocket to pivot, and intern enables the rocket nozzle to direct its thrust fore-and-aft a various angles to maintain a constant pitch attitude on the seat, and keep the seat from tumbling fore or aft at all airspeeds between 0 kts and 600 kts.  The round gear in the top left corner of the image is the gyro.  A gear rack is used to balistically spin-up the gyro at the time of ejection.  The STAPAC rocket produces roughly 1050 pounds of thrust for .5 second.  When added to the thrust of the rocket catapult (5000 pounds for .55 seconds) , it's easy to see why ejection times are so short.  NOTE: the STAPAC pictured is not a complete assembly. Most of the assembly is there, however, the actuation cables used to direct the rocket are not in their correct location, as well as other smaller components.

This is a zero-zero test of an ACES II seat (F-15 variant). The term zero-zero refers to the airspeed and altitude at the time the seat was fired. The package that is behind and above the seat is the personal parachute container (black colored).  The white piece of cloth above the container is the pilot parachute which in connected to the container and aids in the deployment of the personal parachute. The pilot parachute is deployed by a fabric covered coil spring located in the top of the container.  As the pilot parachute pulls at the top of the container, the personal parachute is drawn out of the bottom of the container by the parachute risers which are attached to the occupant. If you look close at the rocket plume, you'll notice that there are 2 rockets burning.  The one to the rear is the main lifting force for the seat/man mass which comes from the rocket catapult.  The smaller second plume is from the STAPAC.