Amazing airline ejection concept could prevent air-crash deaths [video]
Posted by Josh Taylor / October 24, 2015
Ejection seats don’t make a lot of sense in an airplane, but what if the entire cabin were ejectable? The moment something goes wrong in a plane the whole cabin could just shoot out and parachute to safety.
Full story at YouTube.
Not likely since almost all air crashes happen on take off or landing.
Tell that to malaysia airlines smart ass
You can always find a negative dream killer. They are always ready to tell you why something won’t work, but have no solutions or ideas themselves.
The technology has multiple issues. First of all is it technically feasible? Almost certainly yes.
Second question. How much $$$. Without a doubt millions perhaps even a billion or more to
develop, test and integrate into newly built jets. To retrofit existing planes would be prohibitive in cost.
Are we as a society willing to bear that cost. Or will the bean counters crunch the numbers and decide
that it’s cheaper to pay the $$$ to families of crash victims than to implement this technology.
Finally….what criteria will be put in place to determine under what circumstances this device would be
activated. If we have a plane develop massive mechanical issues like the flight that crash landed in
Des Moine, IA a number of years ago this system would have saved many lives. If however you eject
a few hundred people out of a plane over the open ocean in mid winter how many will survive…..and
who will be held accountable for the fact that they will probably die.
New technology is always fraught with uncertainty and questions that can’t be answered easily.
Interesting concept, but there are a number of issues that would need solutions. For example, a plane in so much distress that this last resort is needed may not be functional enough to eject the inner tube with the people in it. A lot of engineering would be needed to make sure it will work, for example, if power is lost. Another concern is if the plane is traveling at 500 mph, and the passenger tube is ejected, how does it fly? It has no aerodynamics and is traveling too fast to deploy the parachutes. The concept could work (after all we land capsules on the moon and Mars through a similar approach), but I think it is a long way off. Imagine the cost, and what that would do to airfare’s.
Airlines will never accept or adopt such a radical safety technology. The parachute system would take up a lot of valuable passenger space, and weigh tons.
But as a passenger (who gave up all flying years ago because of the parsimonious nature of airlines) I am all for this. So long as secondary cargo (such your pets in pressurized cargo) also benefits from such safety systems.
Certainly plausible, but a good solution to a problem always raise another problem…
Though I believe that this won’t work in most cases as Robin stated, saving the passengers from one airline crash is worth the effort. We are talking 100+ lives per accident. I also believe that this concept will be difficult to implement on newer airplanes with blended wing fuselages and composite hulls. However majority of the accidents are on older planes anyways.
Instead of sliding out the back what if that was the upper fuselage? Leaving the wings, engine and cargo hold behind. The passenger area would require reinforcement for the parachute systems but it would eliminate redundancy.
@ robin , that will be the reasoning of airline companies who are scared of the added airplane cost. profit first before safety.
It’s cheaper for the airlines if the passengers die from a crash. A survivor can get upwards of $50 million USD whereas a dead passenger only get $1 million USD.
It would seem to be simpler to modify the existing parachute design for some small planes to scale for larger planes. Lower the entire plane by parachutes to the water or land. Fewer moving parts, and it would include those in the cockpit as well – which this does not. And those are the people best trained to deal with such emergencies.
Considering it looks like the Russians came up with this idea it wont work if you shoot missles at the airplane! (russia has a extensive record of downing civilian airliners) what a bunch of bone heads!
Yes there is always a dream killer lurking but by having them around it keeps balance in the sense that just maybe,.,.. maybe. . they catch something others don’t. Its not the case this time however
Michael, its a good thing to poke holes in ideas like this. If citizens spot mistakes or flaws in a concept, adjustments can be made or alternative strategies explored. This is a project that would cost a lot of money and flaws in design could ultimately lead to increased injury or death. No one is saying, “stop trying this is stupid.” Instead, they are saying “get it right,” and, “have you thought about this?”
Robin has a point about when accidents tend to occur. This may also require the entire cabin to be intact. It’s a fair question, how many deaths would this really prevent. Don’t stop working on it! Please keep going. But, we can still discuss pros and cons of this tech in the meantime. Criticism of new ideas is not a bad thing. And it certainly doesn’t mean that the concept is not worthy of pursuit.
The weight of such a system would prevent it from every being used.
I thought there was a pod that ejected so only the important ones survive.
David Soom
Hey, Robin… REA your “crashes happen on landing”… that’s the only place a crash CAN happen. BTW, the reason this idea is flawed is that the flex of the outer cabin housing would pinch the interior canister in the event of a catastrophic disaster, prohibiting it from cleanly ejecting from the stricken aircraft. The Air Force spend 15 years looking at this back in the 60’s and 70’s, and even then (when the fuselage was structurally stronger), it wasn’t viable. It’s the FACTS that make this concept a dream killer.
We can do almost anything we want. Maybe small doors on the top of the plane can open up and out pops parachutes that can help the pilot steer the plane away from populated areas and make a soft landing or touch down. I`m not an engineer, but they can figure it out
Warmachine, being a bonehead is unfortunately limited to the russians, the US military was also a bonehead when the USS Vincennes downed an Iranian passenger jet.
Extra airline fee to be a part of the pod
Interesting idea, though hardly new. I read about a plan like this in Discovery magazine around 25 years ago, although they explosively detached the rudder before lauching the cabin up and over the aircraft.
Why all the cabin windows? With all the weight that contraption will need to work I would think 2 port holes would be plenty!
Is everyone so ‘drunk’ by this concept and it’s little video that they have forgotten rule #1? Invention comes when there is a need. There is NO need. Air travel is the safest way to move people around every invented. Why would the industry completely redesign their aircraft at the cost of trillions, pass the costs to consumers in the form of higher ticket prices… for a problem that doesn’t exist?
Watching too many action movies people?
What happens to the pilots in that scenario?
This system was used by Convair, when they built the B-58 Hustler, bomber. I know that it worked on several occasions but not sure if a large scale pod was ever used. It did work for Convair and may be viable for airliners but it is a major weight and cost factor, but, how much is a life worth??
The title is in Arabic but the video has Russian text in it. Russia has been toying around with a number of amazing technological concepts lately. tank-by-wire tank, unmanned tanks, microwave guns, advanced EW systems, super-super-carriers, hybrid jets, etc. Looks like the old Russian creativity is coming back.
The concept is grate but the significant problem lies on pilots who have been severely trained and so confident they are. When aero problem emerges or airline crash is heading to happen pilots or captain do not provide evacuation announcement but rather severe warning state or alert situation which is useless for a situation like that, therefore life jackets or air filling life buoys or parachutable passenger cabin will never be of help if aviation training system doesn’t take this situation into an account.
AIR TRAVEL IS NOT THE FUTURE ,RAILWAY IS PLUS OTHERS
This was examined years ago. It was determined that the size of the parachute need to bring the cabin down reasonably safe would fill the entire cabin. So I guess it would save lives since nobody could fit into the plane.