This silent footage shot with high speed cameras shows a full ejection seat test for the S3A Viking aircraft conducted at the U.S. Navy’s facility at China Lake, California. It was shot in 1971, before the aircraft went into active service. Various views of the test are seen including on-board cameras. The S-3A’s four man crew necessitated a sophisticated ejection sequence — and a close look at the footage shows that all four crew could be ejected within seconds of one another without their chutes getting entangled (and without frying each other with rocket blast). All crew members sit on forward-facing, upward-firing Douglas Escapac zero-zero ejection seats. In “group eject” mode, initiating ejection from either front seat ejects the entire crew in sequence, with the back seats ejecting 0.5 seconds before the front in order to provide safe separation. The rear seats are capable of self ejection, and the ejection sequence includes a pyrotechnic charge that stows the rear keyboard trays out of the occupants’ way immediately before ejection. Safe ejection requires the seats to be weighted in pairs, and when flying with a single crewman in the back the unoccupied seat is fitted with ballast blocks.
The Lockheed S-3 Viking is a four-seat, twin-engine turbofan-powered jet aircraft that was used by the U.S. Navy primarily for anti-submarine warfare. In the late 1990s, the S-3B’s mission focus shifted to surface warfare and aerial refueling. The Viking also provided electronic warfare and surface surveillance capabilities to the carrier battle group. A carrier-based, subsonic, all-weather, multi-mission aircraft with long range; it carried automated weapon systems, and was capable of extended missions with in-flight refueling. Because of the characteristic sound of the Viking’s engines, it was nicknamed the “Hoover” after the vacuum cleaner brand.
The S-3 was retired from front-line US Navy fleet service aboard aircraft carriers in January 2009, with its missions being assumed by other platforms such as the P-3C Orion, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk, and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Several aircraft were flown by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Thirty (VX-30) at Naval Base Ventura County / NAS Point Mugu, California, for range clearance and surveillance operations[2] on the NAVAIR Point Mugu Range until 2016, and one S-3 is operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the NASA Glenn Research Center.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
