As it prepares to replace its T-38 Talons with the T-X advanced jet trainer, the U.S. Air Force is also looking forward to a new ejection seat that promises to overcome many of the limitations of the seats now in use. During a 5-hr. training session and 1-hr.-long flight in a T-38 with U.S. Air Combat Command's 71st Fighter Trainer Sqdn., one of a handful still fitted with the original 1960s-era Northrop seat, I saw firsthand how complicated, inconvenient and downright painful an ejection seat can be.
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