August 2018 FLYPAST 47EJECTION
SEATDANGER
DANGER
August 2018 FLYPAST 47was ready to take over. The
pioneering EE416 was scrapped in
1959 but its all-important modified
forward fuselage was presented to
the Science Museum.
For some time EE416 was
displayed in South Kensington,
London, in an ‘action’ pose along
with the seat successfully used by
MB’s first-ever ‘customer’, ‘Jo’
Lancaster who ‘banged out’ of
Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 flying
wing TS363 on May 30, 1949.
Today EE416 is proudly on show
at Chalgrove.
In 1955 Sqn Ldr John ‘Fifi’
Fifield DFC AFC, who had previously
flown with the Central Fighter
Establishment, the NGTE and
de Havilland, joined MB as a test
pilot. He quickly discovered that
a good way to empathise with the
‘passenger’ in the back seat was to
try it out personally.
Meteor T.7 WA634 was allocated
to MB on January 28, 1952. Already
a two-seater, it offered much more
space for trial installations and also
meant the pilot could have a ‘bang
seat’ if all went wrong. In 1952
Gloster fitted a rear fuselage from
an F.8 fighter version, among other
modifications. Because it was a
hybrid, it was often referred to as a
Meteor ‘T.7½’.
By this time, MB was
developing a seat capable
of deployment at ultra-
low level, or even on the
ground, and Fifi volunteered
to try this out. On September
3, 1955, Scotty hurled WA634
along Chalgrove’s runway at
120mph and the Mk.3 seat shot Fifi
300ft into the air – he was safely
back on the ground six seconds later.
The following month, Fifi blasted
out of WA634 from 40,000ft, again
with complete success.
Meteor WA634 flew its last trial
on December 12, 1967 and in the
summer of 1974 became part of
the RAF Museum’s collection; it
is presently in store at Cosford,
Shropshire. In 1962 and 1964
another two T.7½s, WA638 and
WL419 respectively, joined the
MB fleet. Both of
these veterans
continue
to serve
at Chalgrove.
Bernard
Lynch BEM died
on October 13,
1986, his date of
birth seeming
to have escaped
record. Upon
his passing, MBissued a press release
and its final words
remain a fine tribute to a
determined man:
“It takes a special kind of
courage to fire yourself out of
an aircraft when you don’t have
to; it takes an extra special kind
of courage to be the first person to
do it. Benny Lynch had that extra
special kind of courage.”Extracted and adapted from the two-
volume Testing to the Limits: British
Test Pilots since 1910 by Ken Ellis,
published by Crécy.
http://www.crecy.co.ukAbove left
A ‘zero-zero’ – aircraft
stationary on the ground- ejection from Meteor
WA634, April 1961.
Top right
Sqn Ldr Fifi eld making
the fi rst ultra low-level
ejection from Meteor
T.7 WA634 at Chalgrove,
September 3, 1955.Above
A stoic-looking ‘Benny’
Lynch strapped into
Meteor III EE416 at
Chalgrove, 1946. ALL
COURTESY MARTIN-BAKER
UNLESS NOTED