This accident at the 1989 Paris Airshow caused some interest in the U.S. as the Zvezda K-36DM zero-zero ejection seat performed extremely well, and at the time some commentators said that a U.S. ejection in identical circumstances would probably have ended badly. As a result, a few years later, Zvezda was involved in a study in the U.S. with a view to supplying the USAF and U.S Navy (
http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9905/27/t_t/ejection.seats/index.html) but in the end the contract went to Martin-Baker. In fact the pilot probably had a little luck on his side, it was either outside or on the very edge of the operating envelope of the seat, but this wasn't obvious at the time (the Soviets played it fairly cool).
A bird strike damaged the right hand engine causing an unrecoverable dive. The pilot, Anatoliy Kvochur, steered the jet away from spectators and then ejected 92m above ground. He landed a mere 30m from the wreckage, the ejection seat impacted right next to him. Kvochur was rushed to hospital, but was released the same day with nothing worse than bruises and a cut above his right eyebrow from the oxygen mask.
YouTube Description:
A short intro to the performance of the Mig 29 at the 1989 Paris Airshow, along with the infamous accident.It's worth noting that while Mig test pilots were lauded for the tail slide maneuver in 1989, Bob Hoover was doing tail slides in a Sabreliner (a business jet) for years before that.
Load Comments...
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.