Look again. He's not sitting on the seat back, but on the canopy rail. And notice it's an AF style seat with no face curtain firing system to get tangled in. Probably has armrest triggers like the early seats did.
Cheers,
Wes
Look again. He's not sitting on the seat back, but on the canopy rail. And notice it's an AF style seat with no face curtain firing system to get tangled in. Probably has armrest triggers like the early seats did.
Cheers,
Wes
Canadian CF-104s retained the original seat.
Danish (ex-RCAF) F-104s and Luftwaffe F-104G had the MB seat retro-fitted (I think also the Italian F-104), and the Dutch F-104s retained the original seat.
I don't know, but the seat in the picture doesn't look like any Martin-Baker I ever saw. All the ones I saw had tall headrests with face curtain handles projecting out over the pilot's helmet.
And no, you wouldn't be in hospital, you'd be decapitated and fried. The sustainer rockets would go off right over you, but you wouldn't notice because your head would be in the seat bucket.
Cheers,
Wes