The U.S. Air Force ejects a black bear from a bomber plane - March 21st, 1962

On this day in 1962, a black bear named Yogi was ejected from a supersonic bomber during a test of the plane’s escape capsule. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that tallies the games and losses of everyday history
on Gabelusier And in this episode, we're talking about the

(00:21):
supersonic ejection tests of the US Air Force and the
unlikely test pilots it compelled into service. As a warning,
today's episode includes descriptions of government sanctioned animal abuse and
maybe upsetting for some listeners. The day was March twenty first,

(00:45):
nineteen sixty two. A black bear named Yogi was ejected
from a supersonic bomber during a test of the plane's
escape capsule. She was ejected at thirty five thousand feet
from a US Air Force B fifty eight Huer flying
at the supersonic speed of eight hundred and seventy miles
per hour. Thankfully, the experimental ejection capsule functioned properly and

(01:10):
Yogi survived the test. She landed unharmed about eight minutes later,
but didn't stay that way for long. Prior to the
nineteen forties, the pilot of a damaged plane only had
one real option jump out and hope their parachute opened.
But as aerial warfare intensified, engineers began looking for a

(01:31):
way to launch the pilot out of harm's way before
their shoote deployed. Early ejection seat prototypes used compressed air
to propel the pilot seat up and out of the cockpit,
but most of the final designs used small explosive cartridges instead.
The first operational ejection seats were developed in Germany near

(01:51):
the end of World War Two. They were used at
least four times during service, but not a great effect.
Two of the four pilots died in the attempts. Still,
the idea behind the project was a sound one, and
many countries militaries began developing their own versions after the
war had ended. A few years later, the first supersonic

(02:12):
aircraft were introduced, and ejection seats became a necessity. That's
because simply jumping out of the cockpit isn't an option
when you're traveling faster than sound. In the nineteen fifties,
rocket powered ejection seats became a standard feature in most
military jets. Several different models were used, but they all
worked in roughly the same way. When the pilot pulled

(02:35):
the ejection handle, a chain reaction was triggered. First, the
cockpit canopy would be blown off by a set of
explosive charges. Then the pilot's body harness and leg straps
would tighten, pulling them close against the seat. Next, the
catapult system beneath the seat would activate, guiding it up
along a set of rails until the rocket motors ignited

(02:58):
and launched the seat and the pilot clear of the cockpit. Lastly,
small stabilizing rockets built into the seat would fire to
help keep a level and the pilot's parachute would deploy. Hopefully,
all of that would happen over the course of about
four seconds, a harrowing experience for a human pilot, but

(03:18):
in many cases a life saving one. The technology did
have a downside, though. Most dejections put between fifteen to
twenty g's of force on the pilot, often resulting in
spinal injuries, and when moving at supersonic speeds, the risk
of serious injury or death was compounded. The issue came
to the forefront during the development of the Conveir B

(03:41):
fifty eight Hustler, a high speed nuclear bomb carrying plane
built in the nineteen fifties. It was the first operational
bomber capable of mock two flight, meaning it could travel
twice the speed of sound, or roughly fifteen hundred miles
per hour. Standard ejection seats were deemed too dangerous when

(04:01):
moving at such speeds, so engineers at the Stanley Aviation
Company designed a new kind of ejection system. The B
fifty eight was operated by a crew of three, the pilot,
the radar navigator, and the defense system's operator. They were
each seated in a separate cockpit, arranged one behind the other,

(04:21):
and each cockpit was equipped with its own escape device.
But instead of rocket powered seats, the B fifty eight
used fully enclosed escape capsules. The airtight pods included their
own oxygen supply, allowing them to be ejected safely at
an altitude of up to seventy thousand feet and its
speeds up to mock two. The capsules were also designed

(04:45):
to function as life rafts. They were stocked with food, water,
and other survival supplies, and were buoyant enough to serve
as a boat in the event of a water landing.
In the early nineteen sixties, the US Air Force began
testing this new ejection system on the ground using rocket
powered acceleration sleds. The initial ground tests used human dummies

(05:07):
fitted with sensors, as well as private citizens recruited from
unemployment lines. Later on, researchers turned to animal test subjects,
including chimpanzees, Himalayan brown bears, and American black bears. The
chimps provided some useful data, but the bears were a
better approximation of the mass, body shape, and organ arrangement

(05:28):
of a human, and so when it came time for
in flight trials, the bears were the obvious choice. The
first of those ejection tests took place on March twenty first,
nineteen sixty two. A two year old female black bear
named Yogi was sedated and strapped into one of the
B fifty eight subjection pots. Then a human pilot flew

(05:51):
the jet to thirty five thousand feet and ejected the
bear over the Texas Desert. Yogi landed safely roughly eight
minutes later, have endured what must have been the most
confusing and frightening experience of her life. The Air Force
was satisfied with the outcome and went on to eject
five more bears from the B fifty eight Hustler, some

(06:13):
at even higher speeds and altitudes than Yogi. Two of
those bears had much rougher trips, sustaining fractures, broken bones,
and bruising during their landings. There was also one fatality
among the group, a bear who had a brain condition
that was not identified before the flight and was unable
to withstand the physical strain of ejection. The test phase

(06:36):
was completed in August of nineteen sixty two, and a
few months later the Air Force released a short film
detailing the success of the project. The program pointed out
that several design flaws in the capsule had been revealed
through the tests. For example, the bears fractured pelvic bones
highlighted the need for a seat that wouldn't shake so

(06:57):
much during ejection. That and other faults would be corrected
in future models, and, once perfected, the capsules would be
installed in all operational B fifty eights. The video didn't
linger on the bear's injuries or trauma, but made sure
to include footage of one being hand fed some fruit
by a woman in a white dress. As for the

(07:19):
bear occupant, the narrator proclaims she was kept under clinical
observation for several days after her flight, following which the
customary detailed medical examination was performed, No injuries of any
kind were revealed, and the animal's overall condition was found
to be excellent. What the narrator conveniently omitted is that

(07:42):
the detailed medical examination was an autopsy. The five bears
who had survived their supersonic ejections were later euthanized so
that doctors could examine their internal organs for hidden injuries.
The short film concluded by declaring that quote, the closely
knit Air Force industry team can look back on their

(08:03):
joint labors with justifiable pride. It's a nice sentiment to
end on. But if all they felt was pride, then
why hide the true fate of the animal test pilots?
Why say the animal's condition was excellent when in reality
it was only their organs that were in good shape,
while the bears themselves were dead. The Escape Capsule program

(08:26):
was called ambitious and pioneering, and from an engineering perspective,
it absolutely was. Likewise, the capsule itself was heralded as
a major advance in aeronautic safety, and that was true too,
But as with so many other human achievements, it's a
lot less impressive when you find out exactly what was

(08:46):
done to achieve it. I'm Gabelucier and hopefully you now
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you'd like to keep up with the show, you
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HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

(09:07):
you can always send them my way by writing to
This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day
in History class.