Ejection seats and scoliosis

[Boltonpilot]

For a long time now, I've had the dream of becoming an officer in the ANG after I graduate and hopefully become a pilot.

...Something happend to pop in my mind today, and I wanted to get some opinion on this...

I think it goes w/o saying that ejection seats are EXTREMELY powerful and have the tendancy to make the ejected pilot shorter due to the extrememe pressure put on the spine. Well, I have a slight curvature in my spine (scoliosis)...and I wondered-would that disqualify someone from flying aircraft with ejection seats? Wouldn't a massive amount of pressure on an already curved spine mean BIG trouble for a pilot afterwards?

(...not saying that my sole dream is flying fighters and nothing else, btw)

[MDPilot]

Maximum scoliosis for an FC1 initial flight physical is 20 degrees, with the possibiliy of a waiver up to 30 degrees. Below those numbers, you should be safe for ejection seats.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Boltonpilot

I think it goes w/o saying that ejection seats are EXTREMELY powerful and have the tendancy to make the ejected pilot shorter due to the extrememe pressure put on the spine.

With women in the cockpits of high-tech fighters now and the tendency of women to be much lighter than men, they are changing ejection seats to make them less powerful.

I think they are looking at a similar solution to that proposed for air bags in cars, such as using a sensor to determine weight of the occupant and fire the rocket based on that.

There were also concerns with some of the foreign militaries whose pilots are also not a heavy as American pilots.

This was one of the things going on down the hall from me at Brooks AFB about 5 years ago.

[bullmastiff]

What MD says