Working Lego Technic Ejector Seat for Aircraft

[DLuders]

On MOCpages, Dr. Gabor Pauler "created a compact, self contained [Lego Technic] cockpit controls module for airplanes/helicopters in scale 1:20 (roughly Technic Figure scale), with working 4-channel twin controls (pitch, roll, yaw, throttle) and 2 functional ejector seats in side-by-side alignment. The module has dimensions of 10 studs long, 9 studs wide, and 9 studs tall." He supplied a Lego Digital Designer (LDD) .lxf Building Instruction file.

FOUR-CHANNEL TWIN CONTROLS

"Channel 1: Pitch control: Forth/back movement of C1, C2 yokes are synchronized by C5 pitch synchronizer shaft of pivots of yokes. This movement causes underseat C7 left/right cyclic control levers raise/depress together, pulling/pushing C8 left/right vertical pushrods together, switching on/off C9 left/right cyclic control pushbuttons together.

(Note: We show here an example of a larger sized craft with fly-by-wire controls, where there is no mechanical connection between cockpit controls and control surfaces. Pushbuttons transmit steering signals to a Lego Mindstorms central unit placed under cockpit in lower fuselage, which computes optimal settings of control surfaces and controls them by Mindstorms servo motors. In smaller and more simple models, C7 levers can be extended backward, C8 pusrods can go upward, forming mechanical connection with control surfaces)

Channel 2: Roll control: Left/right movement of C1, C2 yokes are synchronized by C6 roll synchronizer trackrod. This movement causes underseat C7 cyclic control levers rotate, pulling/pushing left/right C8 vertical pushrods echeloned, switching on/off C9 left/right cyclic control pushbuttons echeloned.

Channel 3: Yaw control: Echeloned movements of C3 yaw control pedals are synchronized by C10 yaw pedal actuator sliding block, which slides forward/back, rotating C13 yaw lever up/down by C12 ball joint. It will pull/push C14 vertical yaw pushrod an turn on/off C15 yaw pushbutton.

Channel 4: Collective control/engine throttle: Pulling up C4 collective lever, it will rotate around C16 pivot and push down C17 pusrod and C18 throttle pushbutton."

EJECTOR SEATS

"Ejector seats add plus 2 studs lenght to a normal Lego technic seat, and in 4 studs width × 8 studs height they perform all important functions:

(Note: Ejected parts of seats are color-coded in dark blue, static parts of seats are grey, all manual handles are yellow, static parts of airframe are red, bodies of pilots are green):"

[Edwin Korstanje]

Nice seats ejector, olso like the pizza's on that dashboard

[captainmib]

Using that ejector seat is going to hurt a lot. See the amputated leg...

Nice job though. I'm currently in the proces of building an airplane. Going to look at the LDD for ideas!

[Meatman]

Very Cool.

[Saberwing40k]

What I'm really wondering is what the whole "SkyTank" logo means . So, what does it mean?

Edit: I've just built the bare ejection mechanism, and it Does Not work. The mechanism holding it together is difficult to trigger, and even worse, the trigger on the seat makes it not fly very far. This is interesting, and cool to be sure, but there are better ejector seats,

as Tremor(A.K.A Brickfrenzy) demonstrated in his giant A-10 Thunderbolt model.

In place:

Ejected:

The explanation from his site:

Finally, and possibly the coolest feature on the entire model, is the functioning ejection seat. The pilot's seat is pushed down against a pair of suspension springs. A bar latches onto the back of the seat. When that bar is pushed back, the seat shoots about six inches out of the plane.

Read more at his site.

And keep on building!

Edited September 16, 2012 by Saberwing40k

[Burf2000]

Love, it, something new!

[Jeroen Ottens]

The detailing looks great, but...

It does look quite heavy for an ejector seat. In my F14 I used two springs per seat (you can see one of them just below the two seats) and even then I had to reduce weight to the absolute minimum to ensure that the seats where flying some decent distance in the air.

Jeroen