F-16 fighter jet crashes near March Air Reserve Base in California; pilot safely ejects

Aircraft accidents happen. The 1970 era F-16 is fully depreciated and is a very safe air superiority fighter. When new it probably cost $12 million, newer models obviously more.

Martin Baker, founded by Sir James Martin and Captain John Baker, started out in the late 20s and was originally an aircraft manufacturer. After Captain Baker was killed during a test flight of the Martin-Baker MB3 prototype, the company zeroed in on pilot safety and ejection seats.

Since then, it has delivered over 17,000 seats in 92 countries and 53 aircraft types.

Martin Baker calculates that its ejection seats have so far saved over 7,550 lives, and counting (that’s an additional seven since we interviewed the company ar Paris Air Show in June). There's even an exclusive club, the Ejection Tie Club, for all the pilots whose lives have been saved thanks to Martin Baker ejection seats.

Andrew Martin, Martin Baker, told us about some of the company’s newest ejection seats, including the US16E for the F-35.

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JIMMY FALLON AND THE MARTIN-BAKER EJECTION SEAT TIE CLUB

The Martin-Baker Ejection Tie Club is one of the world’s most exclusive clubs and is probably one of the least known. The only way to join is to eject from a military aircraft using a Martin-Baker seat in an emergency situation. As the biggest manufacturer of ejection seats in the world, over 7,463 air crew lives have been saved to date, including Jimmy Fallon’s Father-in-Law! On his show on Tuesday 31st March he spoke about the chance sighting of an ejection seat in the window of a watch retailer in London and how he found out about the Martin-Baker Tie Club, the special watch for ejectees and discovering that his Father-in-law had ejected in 1961 and was a member of this very club.

“This sparked a huge response from many ejectees and we have had the pleasure of being reconnected with hundreds of pilots and their families not just from the US, but further afield”, says Andrew Martin, Director of Business Development and Marketing. “These pilots have shared some of their remarkable stories with us and we are posting them all on our website. In fact, since the show, traffic to our site has increased by over 500% with US visitors increasing by nearly 2,000%”, he continues.

When an ejectee joins the club, he is given the distinctive tie, tie pin, cloth patch, certificate and membership card. Also available at a special price is the Bremont ejectee watch – just like the one Jimmy Fallon gave to his Father-in-Law. The watch is a collaboration between two British companies, Martin-Baker and Bremont and was put through a rigorous testing schedule including vibration testing, which is used to simulate 30 years of aircraft life. The result is the Bremont MBI with its distinctive red barrel which was the very first watch to go through a live testing programme.

Saving lives is our business and the figures speak for themselves. 7,463 lives have been saved – in itself this is a momentous achievement, however next year Martin-Baker will be marking another major milestone in its 80 year history when it will be celebrating 7,500 lives saved.

http://martin-baker.com/2016/03/31/jimmy-fallon-martin-baker-ejection-seat-tie-club/