Just detach the blades. You can always re-attach them when you've landed.
That's what the Ka-50 does
I love jigsaw puzzles.
I doubt you'll need to if you already had to eject.
Hear me out:
Seats that drop out of the bottom of the helicopter
That way, the pilots can get to the ground first and cushion the impact of the helo 👌
Just do a barrel roll while ejecting so you shoot up. Try not to hit your wingman with your copilot tho
Some Russian helicopters do this
How many of those are intentional?
Attach the ejector seat TO the helicopter blades so that they both eject and you get a cool propeller and can fly around and it can shoot lasers and stuff too.
Just eject the damaged parts. Viola
Who brings a damaged viola to a warzone?
playing with legos be like
I'll get you next time, Gadget!
Eject the helicopter not the seat. Duh.
Shoot the hostage!
So basing off another comment. Have the Ejection seat tied to the rotor and shaft (not in a way that the chair spins. Duh)
Then (as long as rotor hasn't disintegrated) you can eject the seat with the rotor, thus minimizing filet chances... Whilst also floating to the ground softly like those whirly paper helicopter things you played with as a kid
Boom. Parachute free ejection seat
Hold up, let him cook
Nah, just do it like they did in WW1; synchronize the ejection to the rotor blades so you fly through the gap, clean as a whistle.
(Please don't ask about our experiments with the earlier WW1 method of "Fuck it, just shoot the propeller sometimes, it'll be fine". Turns out that doesn't work so great when you replace bullets with people.)
Sus. I watched AirWolf, and Magnum P.I. AND I've studied Leonardo di Vinci. Helicopters are next-gen tech and they don't crash.
Ironically the helicopter casted as Airwolf did crash, killing all its occupants. 😞
Yeah that sucks, I didn't mean to go there
Why not blow the blades off first with a charge in the Jesus pin? Or have the seats eject siddeways or downward? Or like, open the door and jump out hoping you don't hit he rotors?
If you eject downward you may hit the ground before your chute has opened. Helicopters tend to stay pretty low.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find the real solution. Eject rotors, then eject pilots. I think fighter jets basically do the same: eject canopy, then seat.
Because now you have blades shooting away from the helicopter at a high speed which could kill someone.
I think i heard one time that helicopters can jettison the rotor so you dont get chopped up
Unfortunately, that won't stop the blades from spinning, meaning the danger isn't averted.
You shear the blades so they shoot outwards. I couldn't find an irl testing video, but here's a render.
I like all the serious answers as if this was a real option.
Very credible
Who would win?
Two human skulls 💀💀
One twirly boi 🚁
Put some ERA on them skulls and you’re good
I think it's the Apache helicopter that stops the rotors instantly on eject. No need for Mach 13. I know this graphic is a joke though, I just remembered this cool thing about the helicopter.
It's the KA-50/52
Why not extend the seat sideway and eject that way?
I don't know of any ejection seats that go sideways, but early F-104 models had a downward track ejection seat. The main issue is that parachutes need some time to open and helicopters tend to fly pretty low. So in most situations you wouldn't be in a safe altitude to actually eject.
Modern zero-zero seats can safely eject at any altitude, but they do so by using a rocket motor to fly upwards to a safe altitude for the parachute to open. So because of the rotors, helicopters generally don't have ejection seats. The exception is the Kamov KA-50 series. It has explosive bolts blowing off the rotors before ejection.
Presumably less "blowing off" and more "letting go." They're already being spun with as much centripetal force as they'll tolerate. The explosive only needs enough oomph to make itself disappear.
Which had to be a weird pitch. Like, 'for safety reasons, we're going to stitch this together with detcord.'
straight to heaven
Why not just eject sideways?
Heck if accelerating to Mach 19 in about 2 meters is acceptable you could just disable the rotors and only experience an acceleration of less than Mach 1 in just a few meters.
It fails "the cool" factor so we rejected it.
When helicopters lose power they just fall. If the rotor head isn't decapitated then when you get ejected sideways there's s no zero chance you'll be julienned on the way down.
It's why the most (only version currently in operation) common method of helicopter ejection severs the head or blades while it's still rotating so it/they spin off and hopefully away and then the seat rockets away.
Why not eject the rotor, Yu-Gi-Oh style
Place the seats in sleds out the front, and attach them to reins on one of the missiles in the battery.
It can't be any more dangerous than being in a helicopter that's decided today's the day.
Major Mindbleach made local headlines today as he drove a Santa Claus-esque sleigh attached to an AARGM directly over the heads of local combatants. Spectators say that instead of dropping gifts like his holiday counterpart, Mindbleach was dropping dook as he shit his pants repeatedly moving at speeds of Mach 2+ attached to a ballistic missile. The final status of Mindbleach is unknown. More information as the story develops.
Boeing adamantly insisted this not count toward any statistics on the reported dangers of their aircraft, as the system was working as intended at the time of the pilot's exit. All questions about subsequent events should be directed to the manufacturer of the missile.
Simple, just put the rotors on the bottom, problem solved!
