The 1960’s F-111 tactical fighter plane was one of the first vehicles to sport a crew escape system that jettisoned the entire front fuselage instead of individual seats. Developed by the US military with a primary objective of performing reconnaissance over the USSR during the cold war, the plane and its subsequent iterations continued flying through the 1990’s, boasting one of the safest operational records in US Air Force history.
See the crew escape system in action:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8l79lSjVMg?]
F111 escape system was a McDonnell Douglas project for the aircraft OEM.
While working on the on the BGM109 Tomahawk Cruise Missile ,in Titusville Fl,1984 to 1988,there as an older procurement man who had worked on the F111 escape system for MDC somewhere else. He said it was a real technological challenge. The system was so expensive, that they went back to ejection seats for other aircraft. Aces2 ejection seat transitioned to Titusville defense facility, but MDC St. Louis closed the plant when the govt awarded the sole source BGM109 contract to a new vendor who could not produce it. A double bad decision, since the surviving work Force at Tvl was disbanded. Same bad plan for USA that the Space Shuttle and Constellation replacement program were shut down by the current regime, after campaign promises to expand US Human space programs. Where many of us served our country to the end of the US Human Space program nationwide.