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| Martin-Baker Mk.6 on display at the South African Air Force Museum |
The Martin-Baker Mk.6 is a British rocket-assisted ejection seat designed and built by Martin-Baker. Introduced in the 1960s, the Mk.6 has been installed in combat and training aircraft worldwide.
The Mk.6 seat was developed from the earlier Mk.4 design by the addition of a rocket pack to enable zero-zero capability. [1] A variant of the Mk.6 was fitted with a compressed air cylinder crew breathing system to provide underwater ejection capability for the carrier-borne Blackburn Buccaneer aircraft. [2]
Operating either the seat pan or face blind firing handles initiates aircraft canopy jettison, as the canopy clears an interlock is removed which allows the main gun located at the rear of the seat to fire, the main gun is a telescopic tube with two explosive charges that fire in sequence. As the seat moves up its guide rails an emergency oxygen supply is activated and personal equipment tubing and communication leads are automatically disconnected, leg restraints also operate. [1]
As the seat moves further up and out of the aircraft the rocket pack is fired by a lanyard attached to the cockpit floor. A steel rod, known as the drogue gun, is fired and extracts two small parachutes to stabilise the seat's descent path. A barostatic mechanism prevents the main parachute from opening above an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) A time delay mechanism operates the main parachute below this altitude in conjunction with another device to prevent the parachute opening at high speed. The seat then separates from the occupant for a normal parachute descent, a manual separation handle is provided should the automatic system fail. [1]
The Mk.6 ejection seat has been installed in the following aircraft types:
List from Martin-Baker. [1]
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Martin-Baker Mk.8 is the designation given to two distinct British ejection seat types designed and built by Martin-Baker. The original use applies to a seat developed for the cancelled BAC TSR-2 strike aircraft project of the 1960s, re-use of the designation applies to a lightweight version of the Martin-Baker Mk.10 seat for the Short Tucano and other similar military training aircraft.
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Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham was a Royal Air Force pilot on the Red Arrows aerobatics display team, who died when his ejection seat initiated whilst the aircraft he was in was stationary on the ground and he was conducting pre-flight checks. The incident occurred at the Red Arrows' home base, RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, England. The initiation of the ejection seat was assumed to be by accident. The parachute on the seat did not deploy and Cunningham fell, still strapped to the seat, 220 feet (67 m) to his death 217 feet (66 m) away from the motionless aircraft. In January 2018, in the prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive, Martin-Baker, the manufacturers of the seat, pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety law regarding Cunningham's death. On 23 February 2018, Martin-Baker were fined £1.1 million.
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