Scott Nicholas
The U.S. Air Force will continue tests on two equipment modifications added to the Martin-Baker-developed ejection seat used on the service branch’s F-35 aircraft, Defense Tech reported Monday.
Hope Hodge Seck writes the F-35 Joint Program Office has considered the addition of a lightweight crew sequencer switch and a head support panel between ejection seat risers to the US-16E ejection seat designs to help protect pilots’ necks and lessen an ejection’s impact.
The report noted Air Force will conduct tests on the two equipment modifications until September 9 and potentially carry out the modifications on F-35A units to be produced by 2017.
The US-16E seat was designed to support all variants of the F-35 fighter aircraft and will work to provide balanced optimization between performance parameters such as terrain clearance limits, physiological loading limits and pilot boarding mass.
