 Home / Ejection Seat / RF-4B Phantom ) F-4 Phantom II Martin-Baker Mk. H-7 Ejection
Seat
By Marc "Devil Dog Of The Web" Iseli / Updated Dec. 2025 The Martin-Baker Mk. H-7 seat, yeah, that one, has been cranked out more times than bad chow at the mess hall. They built around 11,000 of these after the Phantom II showed up in the early '60s. The real party trick? You can yank the seat bucket out for maintenance without tearing the whole jet apart. Just unlatch the main beam from the catapult, give it a little lift, tilt it forward in those handy-dandy catapult rail slots, and boom, out it comes. No need to mess with the canopy, which means less time getting yelled at by the OIC. Look, I’m no Martin-Baker seat guru, but as a Plane Captain, I got voluntold to cross-train with every shop that didn’t actively chase me out with a broom. Seat Shop gave me the rundown, and I’ve still got my ancient Seat Card from ‘82 to prove it. Part of the gig was pinning the seat after every hop. The Drogue Gun pin? That thing was a sadist’s idea of a joke. Half the time, I’d climb in and find it missing, like the last guy just gave up. Before launch, we’d unpin everything except the face curtain. which got yanked after the aircrew was strapped in, the pin pulled, and the red bag handed off like we were passing the Olympic torch. Oh, and don’t even think about stepping on the canopy charges unless you want to test your luck with static electricity and see if you can launch yourself into the next zip code. We heard all kinds of horror stories about seats going off with the ground crew still in the cockpit. No idea if any of that was true, but apparently, some 7-year-old managed to punch out of a jet at Willow Grove Airshow in 1980. If anyone knows whether our seats ever went off during an during ground maintenance, I’d love to hear it, preferably from someone who didn’t end up in orbit.  Photos Sgt. Thomas Hotchkiss (Collection), click on to enlarge.
FlashBack Trivia Boy Ejected At Airshow The actual newspaper artical.
1980s RF-4B Phantom Martin Baker Club Here’s to the brave souls who punched out of the RF-4B Phantom and somehow managed to keep their skin and their sense of humor. If any of you recce wizards know of another ejection I missed, don’t start writing my court-martial just yet; send it my way, and I’ll slap it on the list. Stand down, gents. .
Alright, you glorious Rat Phixers and Phlyers, if we ever survived a TAD, a Det, or a BOHICA, who haven't, and you didn’t think I was the biggest gaff off in the squadron. Got a sea story, or some grainy photos your ex didn’t set on fire, and they’re only slightly illegal? Send ‘em by email, snail mail, or safety wire it to a carrier pigeon. I collect ‘em all, just nothing that would incriminate me. 80svmfp3@gmail.com Return To The Home Page  |
)
)
)
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
2025-26 VMFP-3 80s Flashback Web Site Trademark of Phabulous Phantom Productions; All rights reserved.