Originally posted by SkyRock
What country made the first ejection seat?
"The first ejection seats were developed independently during the World War II by Heinkel and SAAB. Early models were powered by compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted with such a system was the Heinkel He 280 prototype jet fighter in 1940. One of the He 280 test pilots, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on January 13, 1942 after his control surfaces iced up and became inoperable. However the He 280 never reached production status. Thus, the first operational type to provide ejection seats for the crew was the Heinkel He 219 Uhu night fighter in 1942.
In Sweden a version using compressed air was tested in 1941. A gunpowder ejection seat was developed by Bofors tested in 1943 for the Saab 21. The first test in the air was on a Saab 17 on 27 February 1944[1] and the first real use in July 29, 1946 after a mid-air collision between a J 21 and a J 22.[2]
In late 1944, the Heinkel He 162 featured a new type of ejection seat, this time fired by an explosive cartridge. In this system the seat rode on wheels set between two pipes running up the back of the cockpit. When lowered into position, caps at the top of the seat fitted over the pipes to close them. Cartridges, basically identical to shotgun shells, were placed in the bottom of the pipes, facing upward. When fired the gases would fill the pipes, "popping" the caps off the end and thereby forcing the seat to ride up the pipes on its wheels, and out of the aircraft. By the end of the war, the Do-335 Pfeil, Me-262 Schwalbe and Me-163 Komet also were fitted with ejection seats."
