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Comment by bdamm | Hacker News Reader

Ejector pods a standard part in airlines? My mind boggles at the amount of weight that would be added. Manufacturing scale might bring down the capital cost, but it would never bring down the operational cost of lugging around all that extra weight, not to mention the inspections and tests required to ensure the devices are working as expected. Airline tickets would be 2x the cost, if not more.

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Not to mention the protocol for usage of something like that. Do people get to pull the handle whenever they feel like it?

People were still willing to fly when the crude oil price was at $100+ a barrel, although I am not sure if a well-designed and tested escape capsule is more complicated than the plane it self...

I just feel that is do-able, and had we made a good one now, we could use it for all the years to come -- and that could also be used in other travels or in case of catastrophic event...

Surviving a water landing from an ejector seat takes a fair bit of training. IMO, a backup parachute system would probably be about as safe and cheaper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_Recovery_Systems

Granted, scaling up from a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_D-Jet to a 787 would be extremely difficult.

Mid-air accidents are a tiny fraction of plane crashes.

This is interesting, if the plane could have 3 sections each with a parachute then if a bomb went off it might only take out 1 of the sections leaving whoever is in the other sections to survive.

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