Ejector seat inventor’s heirs share £47m payout after saving 7,767 pilots and crew The company’s ejection seats are in most fighter jets made by the UK and its allies since 1949.
In 1942 it moved into ejection seats after his close friend Captain Valentine Baker was killed testing a Martin aircraft.
An ejection seat works by blowing away the canopy of the aircraft to clear the way for ejection.
The owners of Martin-Baker ejection seats will share a £47 million payout after sales rose to £347 million.
Captain Baker’s death inspired Sir James to begin researching methods of surviving plane crashes.
