#1495: EjectorSeed

Today’s invention is aimed at saving the lives of occupants of a light aircraft which is about to crash.

The crew compartment consists of a vertical-axis cylindrical canister attached to a high wing. Each semicircular edge of the cylinder’s upper face is attached to the wing by a separate set of explosive bolts.

In such an emergency, the pilot would decide which wing was less badly damaged and fire the bolts on the opposite semicircle.

The crew cannister, attached to one half of the wing, would be ejected and would spin like a sycamore seed towards earth (a sickening journey, but with a much lower terminal velocity than the stricken aircraft has as a whole).