You’re looking for a new seat for you fully sikkkk CRX. You’ve considered Recaros. Jamexes. Sparco seats. Have you ever considered an ejection seat, though? Because apparently Boeing will sell you one. A real one. Ripped out of a real fighter jet.
It’s probably had all its rockets and whatnot taken out, but still, it’s a real ejection seat!
Boeing says that it’s a “genuine ejection seat” from an F-4 Phantom II:
This Mk.7 rocket-assisted ejection seat, built by British manufacturer Martin-Baker Aircraft Co. Ltd., has been professionally cleaned and refurbished and riveted to a sturdy steel base with a natural-looking hand-applied weathered finish. A Custom Hangar plaque is affixed to the underside of the base, and a Certificate of Authenticity is included.
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I’m sure you can throw the rockets back in while you’re taking off that riveted steel base to make it better fit into your Honda, anyway.
Martin-Baker, the British company that originally made the seat, helpfully details the ejection process on its website:
- The pilot pulls the face screen seat firing handle
- Canopy jettison initiated
- Ejection gun fires, seat moves up guide rails and the secondary cartridges fire
- Emergency oxygen tripped
- Aircrew services disconnect
- Leg restraints operate
- As seat rises, static line initiates time-delay which fires drogue gun after 0.5 seconds
- As seat rises, static line initiates time-release unit
22 in. dia then 5 ft dia drogues stabilise and slow seat
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Easy peasy.
Okay okay, so the seat weighs “approximately 495 lb,” which will probably upset your handling balance somewhat, and it costs $19,500, which is almost certainly more than what your CRX is worth (unless it’s got five miles on it and you just got it off of Bring A Trailer). But is $19,500 too high a price to pay for the ultimate in automotive safety? When you see a crash coming your way, just hightail it out of there.
If $19,500 is a little too rich for your blood, Boeing will sell you a cheaper one for a mere $12,500. And if you really want to gamble with your life, someone is selling one out of an old Polish jet for only $9,000 on eBay. And that one even has the parachute still attached.
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There’s weirdly a wealth of wildly overpriced-yet-tastefully-designed furniture made out of old aircraft parts available for sale. Check it out here, if an $8,500 chair made out of an old jet engine is the exact piece that’s been missing from your bedroom.
They’ve also got an old galley cart, if you want to spend your days pretending to be a flight attendant doing what I imagine is the single most miserable part of that job.
h/t to Jim!
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