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  • 8 years later...

Nice to see this thread back from the dead. I had forgotten I posted some photos on here. I got to visit the Midway in San Diego a while back. I'll see if I can find some of the pics. Don M.

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On 10/21/2007 at 8:51 AM, Eddie M. said:

I enjoyed the S-3 a lot at sea. One reason was the sound of the engines, especially on recovery. On launch, if you closed your eyes for a second, you could imagine a large airliner by the sound. It always seemed that the main mounts took a beating. I never saw a main mount collapse in person, but I've seen a couple on plat tape. IIRC, the US-3 didn't have ejection seats. Never understood that one. One thing we always looked forward to was Miss Piggy bringing out the mail. :thumbsup:

Eddie

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Eddie,

Are you sure the S-3 did not have ejection seats? I am pretty sure they left the factory with them installed.  I do remember a tragic incident at an air show (North Island?), mid to late 1980s when a young boy sitting in the cockpit of a static display S-3 somehow removed the safing pin and activated the seat and was catapulted to his death. Another spectator sitting in the other seat suffered burns. My memory is kind of fuzzy now. Were the seats just deactivated after that? Curious to know.

R/ Dutch 

Edited by Dutch
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S-3A/S-3B’s did have ejection seats (I sat on them for years with the sore back end still to prove it). 

 

The US-3 model did NOT have “ejection” seats. That aircraft was a COD variant and had seats in the rear tunnel vice electronic gear the A/B had back there.  The front seats in the US-3 were de-armed and the rear seats were not ejection capable. 

 

The S-3B that NASA still flies has seats, but they are de-armed as well. 

 

Cheers

Collin

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