"Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...
On 5/28/06 6:27 AM, in article
,
"John Carrier" wrote:


"John Weiss" jrweiss98155nospamatnospamcomcastdotnospamnet wrote in
message ...
"John Carrier" wrote...
One of the peculiarities of the A-6 was its lack of a command ejection
system. There was some kind of reverse (perverse) logic in the
community
that had sufficient following to keep it that way (IIRC) for the life
of
the aircraft.

Part of it had to do with the lack of automatic canopy sequencing. You
could go through the canopy or after the canopy, but not while it was in
transit (because of the forward bow). If one Crewmember hit the canopy
jettison while the other pulled the ejection handle, it was bad news for
at least one of them -- both if the canopy got hung up on the first
seat...

I think a canopy interlock would have been simple to engineer. Certainly
part of the engineering to retrofit command ejection.

R / John



The A-6 got command eject in about 1994. I flew several jets that had it,
and it was a simple mod. It was a shame that the jet got it only 3 years
prior to retirement. Too little, too late.

Scary when you can remember your boldface 10 years later. Well, there are
some OCF procedures that ring true after 30+, the indelible knowledge
required for flying non-DCS fighters.

Glad to hear the A-6 finally got command eject. My last flight in one was
fall 1986. Classic Grumman iron.

R / John