The Martin-Baker Mk.2 ejection seat was designed and produced in the UK in the early 1950s as an improvement on the first generation of ejection seats made by the British company.

Indeed, experience with manually operated seats has shown that a number of pilot fatalities were due to loss of consciousness suffered after an ejection, inaction due to circumstantial stress or lack of time to carry out the necessary manual operations during an ejection at low altitude.

Based on these findings, improvements were made to produce a simple, effective and fully automatic ejection seat. Furthermore, it had to be able to be produced in quantity, have the reliability required in service and be designed to allow the conversion of most of the existing manually operated seats already installed in aircraft then in service.

When designing the first automatic seat, it was decided to house the personal parachute in a container located at the rear of the seat and the life raft in its hull, this in order to facilitate the use of the extractor to carry out parachute deployment. It was also necessary to find a way to disconnect the extractor from the seat at the right moment to deploy the parachute, as well as to simultaneously release the occupant with his parachute.

This represented the main improvements of the Mk. 2 over the ejection seats of the previous generation.

The first ejection carried out with a Mk.2 took place on July 15, 1952. However, it seems that the first real emergency ejection took place on May 15, 1953, involving a Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker operating from the aircraft carrier "HMS Eagle". According to Martin-Baker statistics, 332 lives have been saved to date by this version of ejection seat.

When the pilot pulls the face screen seat firing handle, the ejection sequence begins with the firing in sequence of two explosive charges placed in a telescopic tube. Guided by rails, the seat moves quickly upwards. Simultaneously, an emergency system supplies oxygen to the pilot and the electrical communication connections are automatically disconnected.

A drogue gun is triggered by a static line attached to the aircraft structure and, after a one-second delay, deploys two small extraction parachutes. These serve first of all to stabilize the descent of the seat.

A barostat prevents the main parachute from being extracted from the seat and opening at an altitude above 10,000 feet (about 3,000 meters). Below this altitude, a five second delay mechanism actuates a piston releasing the scissor shackle allowing the release of the drogue from the seat.

In doing so, an apron located between the main parachute and its housing pulls the protective face screen, pushes the pilot out of the seat and releases the parachute from its bag.

The main parachute deploys with the canvas and extractor parachutes still attached. Then, the pilot continues his descent supported by his parachute.

If the delay mechanism fails, the pilot must pull the D-ring located on the parachute harness. This has the effect of pulling the sliding disconnect pin which disconnects the extraction line from the main parachute. By doing so, the web flap of the second D-ring is opened allowing the pilot to open his parachute manually.

Ejection Sequence From an Avro CF-100 Canuck Mk. 5:

Leg Restraint System:

Here are the characteristics of the Mk.2 ejection seats as released by Martin-Baker:

• Operating Ceiling: Unknown.

• Minimum height/Speed: Unknown.

• Crew boarding mass range: 70.4 kg to 101.7 kg.

• Maximum Speed for ejection: 400+ KIAS (about 740 km/h).

• Parachute type: Irvin I 24.

• Parachute deployment: Automatic.

• Drogue parachute type: 24 in (61 cm), and later versions 22 in (56 cm) controller drogue and 5ft (1.52 m) stabiliser drogue.

• Drogue deployment: Drogue gun. Initiated by 1 sec clockwork time-delay, tripped by short static line.

• Ejection gun: Early version – two cartridge, 60 ft/sec (18.3 m/s); Later versions – 50 ft/sec (15.2 m/s). Later versions – 80 ft/sec(24.4 m/s).

• Ejection initiation: Face screen firing.

• Barostatic time-release unit : Yes.

• Manual override handle: No, but provision for manual separation.

• Timers: Time-release unit for man/seat separation.

• Seat adjustment: Up/Down.

• Arm restraints: No.

• Leg restraints: Integral thigh guards and foot rests.

• Oxygen supply: Oxygen supply.

• Personal survival pack: Personal survival pack.

Martin-Baker Mk. 2-series ejection seats have been installed on the following aircraft: