Bail-Out Capsule

Pilots of World War II fighters usually bailed out by climbing on the wing and just letting go. But in this day of Mach 2 jets, not even a quick-acting ejection seat can dependably shoot the pilot out of a disabled plane and get him down safely. The wind blast at high speed tears at a pilot's face, smashes cruelly at his chest, twists his limbs into grotesque positions. If he is not battered to death, he is likely to freeze or die from lack of oxygen on the way down.

Last week the Air Force tested an enclosed escape capsule that may solve the problem. Chief Warrant Officer Edward J. Murray, a parachute tester, took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in a B58 Hustler bomber. He was strapped into an elaborate device that looked a little like an old-fashioned baby carriage with a convertible hood. When the B58 reached 20,000 ft. and was flying at 565 m.p.h., Murray pulled a lever. The hood of his seat closed over him, sealing him into an airtight, 700-lb. capsule. Doors opened in the top of the cockpit, and two small rockets fired, blasting Murray and his capsule 250 ft. into the wind. For an instant he felt a 15-G jolt, but the hard-fingered wind never touched his body. At 15,000 ft., a small parachute opened and checked the capsule's fall; then a bigger parachute lowered him and capsule to the earth, the impact softened by crushable plastic shock absorbers. His first words when the capsule opened: "No sweat."

The capsule has still to be tested above Mach 1, but the Air Force is hopeful that it will work even when a B58 is at its top speed of 2,000 m.p.h.--and when the air blast is almost as deadly as a stream of rifle bullets.

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