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T-7A Red Hawk Ejection Seat Test Is as Awesome as It Sounds

It's not long now until the U.S. Air Force gets a brand new trainer jet for future generations of pilots. The plane is called T-7A Red Hawk, and is expected to start replacing the existing fleet of T-38 Talons as soon as next year. Until then, there still is some testing to be done, and the plane's maker, Boeing, seems to not be wasting any time.
T-7A Red Hawk ejection seat test 11 photos
Photo: Boeing
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We know pretty much everything there is to know about the plane and its capabilities already, but this week the aerospace company decided to give us a sneak peek into one of the less visible systems that go into any military fighter jet and trainer: the ejection system.

That's the system meant to help a plane's pilots bail out in case of an emergency. We've seen it being used time and again in movies, and it's as spectacular as it is dangerous to use. That's why, before being included in the design of a plane, each such system is thoroughly tested.

For the Red Hawk, tests have begun at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. There, a 10-mile (16 km) rail can be used to accelerate the hardware in need of testing to incredible speeds. In the case of the Red Hawk ejection system test, that speed would be 200 mph (321 kph).

It's not the entire plane that's being tested during such a procedure, but only the cockpit, mounted on a rail and powered by a rocket engine. Inside the cockpit there are two sensors-loaded manikins, playing the role of airmen in danger.

The ejection system devised for this plane comprises a new type of seat made by Collins Aerospace, called Aces 5. It was this piece of hardware that was used (images in the video attached below) during the Boeing trial, and apparently it worked just as advertised, presenting a low risk to the occupants in case of use.

Of course, this is not the last time we're going to hear something on this subject, as further tests are planned in the future. As some Air Force reps say in the video, there will be, after all, over 350 such planes being used multiple times per day by instructors and students alike, and one never knows when an emergency will arise.

As for the Red Hawk itself, we're talking about a bird powered by a General Electric turbofan engine rated at 17,000 lbf (76 kN) of thrust when using the afterburner. It will be capable of reaching a top speed of over 800 mph (1,300 kph) and a top altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters).

Boeing is getting some $9.2 billion to deliver the 350 trainer airplanes to the U.S. Air Force (USAF), all of them named Red Hawk in honor of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawks flown by the almost all-African American group of pilots called the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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