I’m not a cockpit owner (other than being a member of MAM!) but would like to pose a question. What can/do cockpit owners/restorers do about the many tiny explosive devices often installed in ex-military cockpits?
I went to a BAPC “Stopping The Rot” seminar many years ago and was amazed when one of the speakers (H&S ??) talked about this and said something like “the Canberra cockpit, for example, has ** minute explosive devices in it”. ** was 50+ or 150+ – I wish I could remember the figure.
Can anyone comment?
Roger Smith.
Luckily demilitarisation of cockpits/aircraft mean this should not be an issue now. The Canberra has nastys in the canopy bolts, but these are removed.
The things that are worrying are the drogue gun and barostat timing release unit on the side of the ejection seat. The idea with the BTRU is that after ejection the capsule ‘waits’ until the seat is below 10000ft and then a timed clock then releases a large bolt after a predetermined time. The bolt shoots 4 inches and then pushes a release plunger that releases the harness and occupant from the seat (as well as chutes etc). The idea is that if someone ejects on high, you want him or her to fall quicker to lower warmer levels quickly before floating down on the chute.
In order to keep the seat looking complete, the BTRU bolt would have to be retracted (i.e. armed or the bolt reduced in size). These BTRU’s do not have any explosive but are scary when they go!
The drogue gun should be disarmed…never seen a live one except in service!
There are seat cartridges…..
My suggestion is that if anyone has anything they have a worry about, post it here and someone will come round and help/advise. We have cockpit owners all over the UK (and world!)
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