I service Harrier Jump Jet ejection seats.
I would have thought after they have been used once they'd be pretty much f*cked.....then again, I dont know a great deal about ejection seats, infact my knowledge of them starts and ends with Bond films...
....maybe thats why you service them and I dont.
Obviously we hope they're never used. We're talking £20,000,000 for the jet not to mention the pilot's health (approx 20G in a split second - not good for the spine!), and that's assuming they make it out ok.
They are single use.
Each seat has a two year life before it comes in for a complete strip, maintenance, test (no Antonet, we don't sit in them and get blown into the sky 300 feet!) and re-build.
We have the latest seat to have been used sitting in our workshop, rusting away in the corner. The pilot ejected over the English coast during an air display whilst hovering, hit literally pulled the wrong lever and shut off the engine power instead of moving the nozzles. Needless to say the jet fell out of the sky like a lead balloon and he had to bang-out. He got out fine but broke his ankle landing on the crashed aircraft directly below him. How embarrassing!
On an interesting technical note they're called zero-zero seats because they can fire the pilot out from the ground at standstill, up far enough (300 ft.) so the parachute can open and get him down safely.
Oh, and the guy who serviced the seat gets a crate of beer from the pilot if their seat is used. I've only worked in there since December so no beer for me yet.
Anyway that's enough of me boring you about my work. Aquarium plants, now there's interesting
.