Yankee Tractor Rocket Escape System

The retrofit of the Air Force A-1 Skyraiders, both single seat and wide body, with the Stanley Aviation Corporation Yankee escape system is fairly well known. As it turns out, this was a Navy initiative and at least two squadrons had their aircraft modified with this capability, VA-25 (Coral Sea) and VA-152 (Oriskany). It was sometimes referred to as an extraction seat as opposed to an ejection seat.

The retrofit was fairly simple. VA-25 reportedly had all 12 of its aircraft modified midcruise in a couple of weeks at NAS Cubi Pt, Philippine Islands in November 1967 while Coral Sea was off the line. It basically consisted of a rocket installed behind the pilot's headrest that was connected to two ten-foot lines that were attached to the pilot's parachute harness.

When the pilot activated the system by pulling a D-ring located between his thighs, the canopy was jettisoned and the rocket tilted upward and fired, extracting the pilot out of the cockpit as opposed to ejecting him. This is a test using a civil-registered T-6G.

The system was rated for zero airspeed and zero altitude but only with zero sink rate and zero pitch/roll. A zoom climb was therefore recommended before jettisoning the airplane.

Although light weight, the extraction concept was only appropriate at the relatively low speeds usually attained by propeller driven aircraft.

For more stuff on the Yankee seat, see:
http://skyraider.org/skyassn/otherpics/cole/Yankee.jpg
http://skyraider.org/hook/dashonet/yankee.htm
http://users.bestweb.net/~kcoyne/frame_sg.htm (Click on the Yankee seat)