Subject: FA 18 cockpit pit photo descriptions
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 01:15:40 -0800

All cockpit photo's are of F/A-18A, Buno 161519, NASA 843.

Mvc-109s

Overall frontal view of SJU-5/A ejection seat. Parachute is attached only for the picture.

Mvc-110s

Bucket assy

Mvc-111s

Right side of bucket

Mvc-112s

Upper Right Main Beam Assy

Mvc-113s

Close up showing TRM assy on Upper Right main Beam

Mvc-114s

Top of parachute and Catapult manifold assy.

Mvc-115s

Left side of bucket

Mvc-116s

Upper Left Main Beam assy with Drogue gun

Mvc-117s

Underseat Rocket Motor Assy

Mvc-118s

Close up of left side rocket motor attach point

Mvc-119s Close up of right rocket motor attach point

Mvc-120

US Navy Koch fittings and SEAWARS

Mvc-121

Bucket removed from main beam

Mvc-122s

Frontal view of seat bucket assy.

 

JPEG MCV-125s

This view is of the aft cockpit bulkhead showing the seat rails installed and the aft bulkhead equipment. On the left side of the cockpit bulkhead (right side on your screen) is the Oxygen Heat Exchanger and plumbing, the Communications assy and the seat electrical (connected to the seat rail). On the right side of the cockpit (left on your screen) is the JAU-29 Initiator, SMDC line and the gas hose that connects to the Ballistic Quick Disconnect (QD).

Some of you may not realize, but the seat bucket is removable from the rails to assist in the removal of the seat from the cockpit. Its held on by 4 nuts. And this is the only portion that raises and lowers, the rails don't move.

MVC-126s

Close up of the right side of the bulkhead. Visible are the JAU-29 init, gas hose and the .3 second Time Delay initiator mounted on the seat rail (yellow assy). The green oxygen hose is a NASA mod. We added an Air Force style Panel Mounted Oxygen Regulator and kept the Navy system as a back up, and the kit Emergency 02 as a tertiary system. Yes, triple redundancy.

MVC-127s

Close up of the TRM trip rod connection to the bulkhead (yellow tube & chain) also shows the ballistic qd location.

The box in the upper left portion is the Fan Test Box. This is the upper right side of the aft bulkhead.

MVC-128s

Another shot of the left side of the aft bulkhead. The brown area on the console is the personal services disconnect and includes the oxygen connection from the acft to survival kit (aft), Vent suit system (middle) and Anti-G suit (fwd).

MVC-129s

Another shot of the aft bulkhead, right hand side.

MVC-130s

Details of the control column (stick), Lower Inst. Panel and the forward section of the floor. Right in front of the stick, the floor is raised 3 inches. The black fitting behind the stick is the floor attach point for the leg restraint lines.

MVC-131s

Left Rudder pedal

MVC-132s

Right Rudder pedal

MVC-133s

Instrument panel

MVC-134s

Left console fwd showing the blending into the inst panel. The long yellow handle is the manual Canopy Jettison Handle and safety pin/flag.

MVC-135s

Canopy Motor  (open/close) from the left side. This is also the upper catapult attach point. NOTE the seat is not attached to the acft, only the catapult is. The seat is attached to the catapult by means of the Top Latch Mechanism.

MVC-136s

Canopy motor from the right side.

MVC-137s

Aft canopy deck.

MVC-138s

Left Canopy Jettison Rocket Motor, SMDC Line and canopy Defog bellows.

MVC-139s

Right canopy Jettison Rocket Motor.

MVC-140s

Equipment Bay, left bulkhead. Nose of acft is to your right.

MVC-141s

The aft bulkhead of the equipment bay.

MVC-142s

Right bulkhead of equipment bay. Nose of acft is to your left. Missing from the rack is some piece of war-fighting gear NASA doesn't use.

MVC-143s

Forward bulkhead of equipment bay. This shot shows the right hand side of that bulkhead. 

MVC-144s

 Fwd bulkhead of equipment bay. This shot shows the left side. 

MVC-145s

Looking straight down at the cover over the equipment bay and the canopy motor. This shield is in really good shape, generally these are trashed, or the velcro strips are worn, or the snaps are shot, etc.

MVC-146s

Upper Moveable Canopy Deck showing the Canopy Unlatch Thruster and associated SMDC lines and initiators. This area that the rod attaches to will separate and the canopy will go flying off where ever it wants on ejection. The initiators follow SMDC lines to the Canopy Jettison Rocket motors showed elsewhere. This view is from the left side looking under the glass.

MVC-147s

Same View as -146s but from the right side.

MVC-148s

Looking through the canopy from behind showing the equipment bay, back of seat, canopy motor.

MVC-149s

Looking straight down on the stick. Shows where the floor should raise.

MVC-150s

Same shot, slightly aft from -149s.