Convair Corporation, a division of General Dynamics, was given the task of developing an ejection seat that could be used aboard the Century Series Aircraft (F-100, F-101, F-102, F-106, etc.) that would allow pilots to perform trans-sonic and supersonic escapes. As this film shows, two seat designs were prepared and tested. Only one ended up begin finalized, and tests were begun initially at Edwards Air Force Base on a rocket sled, and then at Hurricane Mesa in Utah.

The first ejection seat fitted to early F-106s was a variation of the seat used by the F-102 and was called the Weber interim seat. It was a catapult seat which used an explosive charge to propel it clear of the aircraft. This seat was not a zero-zero seat and was inadequate for ejections at supersonic speeds as well as ground level ejections and ejections at speeds below 120 knots (140 miles per hour; 220 kilometres per hour) and 2,000 feet (610 metres). The second seat that replaced the Weber interim seat was the Convair/ICESC (Industry Crew Escape System Committee) Supersonic Rotational B-seat, called the supersonic “bobsled”, hence the B designation. It was designed with supersonic ejection as the primary criterion since the F-106 was capable of Mach-2 performance. Fighter pilots viewed high speed ejections as the most important. Seat designers viewed an ejection at low altitude and slow speed as the most likely possibility. The ejection sequence with the B-seat was quite complicated and there were some unsuccessful ejections that resulted in pilot fatalities. The third seat, that replaced the Convair B-seat, was the Weber Zero-Zero ROCAT (for ROcket CATapult) seat. Weber Aircraft Corporation designed a “zero-zero” seat to operate at up to 600 knots (690 miles per hour; 1,100 kilometres per hour). High-altitude supersonic ejections were rare and ejections at relatively low altitudes and low speeds were more likely. The Weber “zero-zero” seat was satisfactory and was retrofitted to the F-106 in 1963.

You can read more about this at the excellent “Ejection Site”:

http://www.ejectionsite.com/frame_106.htm

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