After striking out at all the AFB DRMO's (800-468-8289), I called Davis-Monthan AFB in AZ (520-750-3204). I found out that they only sell surplus parts to qualified (approved) dealers and not the general public. Everyone I contacted suggested I make a call to Don Howel at Havco Aviation, 8625 N. Sunnyslope Drive, Oro Valley Arizona (520-429-0025). Don had seats from B52-D's that had been demilled per the START treadies. By now he might have seats from F-4's and F-111's as these were just retired from service. I think only the RECON versions of these aircraft are still in service. The B-52 pilot/copilot, nav, ewo & gunner seats are the choices I had. Naturally, being a flightsim pilot, you have to have a pilots seat. So after Don sent a Polaroid for me to choose a seat, I sent off a check for $225. Don will crate the seat for another $75, but you still have to find a way to ship it home. I tried trucking firms, but they wanted more for shipping than I was paying for the seat itself. The bus lines had a weight limit for packages of 75 pounds. Don said the seat would ship at around 120 pounds. Railroads only rent out entire boxcars. That would be great if I was going into business building these seats and wanted to ship 100 units. Shipping by air would be completely out of the question because of cost. I was all set to borrow my Dad's El Camino and drive from the San Francisco bay area (near Travis AFB) to Tucson and bring it home myself. Kind of like one of those college road trips I never got to take, because I never went to college (too busy working). Then, I find out that none of my friends wanted to spend 36 hours in a car with me hauling an ejection seat all over the west coast. Just when I was about out of ideas, someone suggested a moving company. So I tried Bill Wilson at Valley Freight, 7825 N. Hartman Lane, Tucson, AZ. (520-744-4909) at the North American Van Lines yard. Bill said he could crate the seat, ship it by air to the bay area and have it trucked to my front door for $120. So I sent another check off. Inside of a week later, I had the seat at my door as promised.
The first photo is of the seat the day it arrived. As you can see, it's pretty much intact. The only parts missing were the explosives that shoot it from the aircraft. Most of the items were a little sunburned from sitting outside in the Arizona weather.
After taking some measurements, it took about 4 hours to dis-assemble the entire seat. As I am 6'7" tall, I would have to cut the seat bottom & back near the hip area and widen the armrests to be comfortable. While the flight crew sits on their parachutes, I needed something with more padding. I decided to remove the red plastic back support and red foam headrest. I replaced them with inserts I made from wood, layered with 4" foam (2" for the headrest) and covered them with double layers of woodland camo material from the fabric shop (about $20). These were a problem because I had to keep taking them out and recutting them over & over to get them just right. I made a deal with a local college welding class to build the frame for the seat rail assembly for $20 worth of material and a box of donuts. They had it finished in a week. They also fabricated the joystick/throttle pads after widening the armrests. I found some zinc-chromate primer and OD green paint ($35) to be sprayed after a friend sandblasted the entire seat ($20 for the sand).
With everything dis-assembled, I painted it in a buddy's backyard. First the black primer, then the OD green paint. All in all, I think the painting turned out pretty good. Even though I did blow out the bottom of one spray gun. After letting The Project sit for a week so the paint would cure, it was time for the dreaded 're-assembly.' It took most of the day, but turned out great.
The 15 mile ride home with the seat standing up in the truck bed drew a lot of strange looks. People would pull up alongside and stare, some giving us the 'thumbs up' sign, others just shaking their heads sadly.
The next part of The Project was to install the joystick and throttles on the armrests. I am using a Suncom Eagle programmable joystick and a CH Products throttle. The two work great together and are just about the easiest to program. All the cables run back to a Joyswitch controller box mounted to the emergency rope box behind the headrest. Most of the cables will be hidden or at least blend-in after I re-install the pressure hoses back on the seat. I've built two speaker boxes for each of the Legacy 300w subwoofers ($45) that are mounted under the seat bottom (10") and seat back (8"). These thump pretty good as I have them hooked up to a stereo for my computer sound. I went to Radio Shack for the adapter cables that run from the stereo to my p/c's soundcard. This type of sound beats any p/c speaker set up hands down. I have to be careful that I don't make it thunder too loud in here or my neighbors might think World War 3 has started.
That's pretty much it as far as what it took to build The Project.
If anyone has any suggestions, comments or questions, please feel free to ask. You can contact me at sacbomber@hotmail.com
About all I have done lately is research the aircraft the seat came from. Mine was from a B52 "D model" tail #55-117. It left the Boeing factory in Seattle on 20 June 1957 and was stationed at places like Bergstrom, McCoy, Kelly, Westover, Anderson, March, and Utapao. From it's beginning with SAC, it was flown on alert status as a nuclear strike bomber until around 1966. It then underwent the "Bigbelly" modification to convert the aircraft to carry conventional iron bombs. The aircraft then saw service in Arclight and Linebacker operations during Vietnam. The last flight for #55-117 was on 27 June 1978 to Davis-Monthan AFB to be mothballed, awaiting the crusher.
One of the crews of #55-117 around 1964 from left to right are: Jack Heflin; AC, Tom Gash; CP, George Barton; RN, Jim Dunn; NAV, Ron Moore; EW, and Dave Austin; GNR. Photo courtesy of Maj. Dave Austin, Ret.
I'd like to thank everybody who helped with this project: My Dad for the use of his garage & the El Camino, Bob and Joyce Gartley for the upholstery help, Dave Nurot at SCC for the welding, and lastly, the biggest thanks goes to my good friend John, who did more than I have room for here and even after 17 years, still gets involved with my crazy projects.
Thanks for stopping by my page and taking the time to check it out.
Most of all I'd like to thank all those Air Force crew members who day after day, climbed inside those huge bombers to fly against untold threats, keeping us safe here at home. I will always remember that our "Freedom isn't free".
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Kevin Coyne's Ejection Seat Site
The Exotic Warbird Marketplace with seats for sale/wanted
The Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service
The B52 Stratofortress & Patch Collector's Homepage
EJECT, EJECT, EJECT, Ejection Seats
B-52 Parts For Sale
Dereck Higgs Homebuilt Cockpit Page
