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TWENTY‐ONE years devoted to the development of ejection seats, 24,000 seats built for more than forty nations and now one thousand lives saved—that is the proud record of the Martin‐Baker Aircraft Company. To coincide with these achievements, the following article describes the technical development of the range of seats—from the first swinging arm concept through the early manually‐operated seat to the rocket‐assisted completely automatic zero/zero ejection seats of today. From whatever standpoint Martin‐Baker's record is examined, the result is impressive. In terms of mechanical engineering, a series of ingenious features allied to robust design have resulted in ejection seats of unparalleled performance yet renowned for their simplicity and reliability. In terms of sales, this comparatively small firm has, in effect, conquered the world and won substantial export contracts—not least those for over 7,000 seats for the United States armed forces. In human terms, the company has won the grateful thanks of all those aircrew members—a long roll of highly‐skilled and dedicated young men whom some might call the cream of manhood—who but for Martin‐Baker ejection seats would have perished. Small wonder that the name Martin‐Baker has become synonymous with successful ejection.

Known throughout the world, the Martin‐Baker Company has become an organisation whose sole business is the design, development and production of escape systems. These include ejections seats, command ejection systems, canopy jettison, miniature detonation cord, automatic inflation of liferaft and life vest, and all the related sub‐systems that are required by an aircraft design team. Thousands of lives have been saved in conditions varying from high altitude emergencies to those occurring while an aircraft is still on the ground during its take‐off run. Escape from VTOL aircraft is also a valuable asset as has been shown in successful ejections from uncontrollable situations that have arisen with these types. RAF and Royal Navy aircraft have been equipped with Martin‐Baker systems for many years, and among overseas customers, the US Navy has been using them from the early days.

When the Martin‐Baker Mk. 10 ejection seat was introduced into service, it established significant improvements over earlier seats in many aspects of performance. In the years since that time, it has been adopted by air forces all over the world and has demonstrated the high degree of reliability associated with this company. Of the many types of aircraft in which the seat is installed, the Panavia Tornado, for example, has the 10A, the RAF Hawk the 10B and the Royal Navy Sea Harrier the 10H, each of these being individually suited to particular requirements.

THE MRCA head up display incorporates a camera recorder, fig J, which is mounted directly on the pilot's display unit, and is used to provide a film record of the HUD symbology superimposed on the pilot's view of the outside world.

The latest expertise in escape systems was shown on the Martin‐Baker stand at the Paris Show, highlighted by the company's Mk 14 which is the world's first microprocessor controlled electronic ejection seat. Currently undergoing testing is the variant for the United States Navy Aircrew Common Ejection Seat (NACES) programme, which will be standard equipment for the F/A Hornet, F‐14 Tomcat, T‐45 Goshawk and A6F Intruder. Versions are also being proposed for the European Figh‐ter Aircraft, French Rafale B and the USAF Advanced tactical Fighter.

THIS FEATURE covers simulators for technical training, and consequently are designed for tasks other than the actual flying of aircraft. These include the use of electronics, of ejector seats, the firing of missiles and finally air traffic control.

IN the two years since the last Farnborough Air Show was held by the Society of British Aerospace Companies the aircraft industry has achieved an almost complete metamorphosis from the body blows in the form of major programme cancellations that almost felled it in 1965 to the very healthy position that it holds today.

THE desire to provide today's aircraft with high payload and long range performance capabilities has led to the search for new and innovative ways of reducing weight and increasing the strength of materials used in their construction. Justin Ratcliffe of The Shapemakers explains the role of aluminium extrusions in these developments.