F-35 Ejection Seat Fears Ground Lightweight Pilots

An anonymous reader writes: Writing for Defense News, Lara Seligman and Aaron Mehta report that "[c]oncerns about increased risk of injury to F-35 pilots during low-speed ejections have prompted the US military services to temporarily restrict pilots who weigh less than 136 pounds from flying the aircraft. During August tests of the ejection seat, built by Martin-Baker, testers discovered an increased risk of neck injury when a lightweight pilot is flying at slower speeds. Until the problem is fixed, the services decided to restrict pilots weighing under 136 pounds from operating the plane, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, F-35 integration office director, told Defense News in a Tuesday interview."

Comments

The F-35 is having problems?

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet another bug in the slow-motion uber-expensive train-wreck that is the F-35 program.

Re:The F-35 is having problems?

[ATMAvatar]

The only flight-worthy component of the F-35 is its price tag.

Re:The F-35 is having problems?

[91degrees]

It's a minor design issue discovered during testing. They happen in engineering. The solution is to fix it.

Not sure why this was a problem and why they couldn't use an existing ejector seat design but perhaps they have to be designed on a per-aircraft basis.

Re:136 lbs?

[CrimsonAvenger]

Possible.

On the other hand, the ideal fighter pilot isn't actually very big, since cockpits are crowded, and smaller entities can handle g-forces better than large, muscle-bound types.