Is it possible to design ejector seats for helicopters?


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Yep. In fact, it’s already been done

The biggest problem with designing an ejection seat for a helicopter is of course, the rotary blades. Sending the pilot flying into those, is definitely not the best career move.

It’s a good way to make sushi however

However, there is a helicopter design that was able to get around this problem. The Russian Kamov Ka-50 “Black Shark” is a helicopter that actually does have an ejection seat and one that doesn’t involve turning the pilot into pieces of himself.

It achieves this by doing a 2 stage ejection. First, explosives blow the rotor completely off the helicopter, and then the pilot is safely ejected from the helicopter.

There are other theories, that involve accelerating the pilot to speeds such as Mach 19, which is fast enough to pass through the spinning rotors, but the issue with this is finding a way to prevent the pilot from turning into a pile of goop from the sheer G-forces involved.

So yes, it is possible to design ejector seats for helicopters. One has already been successfully implemented. That being said, there aren’t really any other feasible methods for relatively safe pilot ejection for the time being.


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