1,267,040. Aircraft ejector seats. J. R. COYLE. 29 July, 1969 [19 Feb., 1969], No. 38085/69. Heading B7G. [Also in Divisions E2 and H2] An airman's ejector-seat buckle 2, 3, 2a, 3a, is released, and his flotation vest inflated, or a generator is started, when a switch 14 associated with the seat is immersed in water, a battery 15 supplying the energy when lanyard 12 is pulled. The buckle comprises a male part 27 engaging in recess 26 and held there by a sliding bolt 29 in the female member 3. The latch bolt 29 slides in cavity 32 and has an upper lip 35 which retains the male part in a vertical direction and is itself held in the cavity by a cover-plate 41. The bolt is loaded by springs 43. A keeper key 105, sliding on a pin, serves to prevent inadvertent release of the buckle due to strain. The latch-bolt may be retracted by manual means 30 or automatically on immersion. Manual release 30 is provided by finger-plates 50, 60 sliding transversely oppositely on pins 52, 62 against springs 81. These have downwardly projecting arms 51, 61 having bottom pins 96a, 96b and mutually interengaging notches 53, 63 which prevent release by movement of one only. Mutual transverse movement of these plates enables pins 71a, 71b on the arms 51, 61 to move axially into axial slot 71, thus allowing axial movement of the plates which in turn withdraws the latch-bolt 29. To provide automatic release, a cam-plate 90 has angled cam-surfaces 95, 96 to engage the pins 95a, 96a on the sliding plates to slide them towards each other and so release the bolt. The necessary movement of this cam-plate is provided by explosives 103, Fig. 6, ignited electrically when immersion takes place. The firing charge is derived from a charged condenser C which is connected by a switch 207 when a relay coil 208 is energized by the immersion contacts 20, Fig. 10. Charge is derived from a thermal battery (300) energized by a percussion cap (302) when this is struck by a hammer (307) normally held by pin (310) which is withdrawn by pulling the lanyard 16 to energize the apparatus (Figs. 11-13, not shown).
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