Goldfinger’s ejector seat stunt – is it possible?
October 18, 2016Leading scientists and engineers have studied stunts in James Bond films.
Goldfinger‘s (Gert Fröbe) henchman has a gun to Bond’s (Sean Connery) head as 007 drives his Aston Martin. Bond flicks the ejector seat switch on his gear stick and the hapless villain shoots out of the roof, leaving Bond free to make his escape.
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| Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC |
Andrew Martin, business development manager at Martin Baker, a company that makes ejector seats for aircraft, says that it would be possible to put an ejector seat into a car, but to do so Bond would need to replace his sports car with a big 4×4 vehicle.
‘You need enough height in the cabin to integrate the ejector seat,’ he says. ‘In an aeroplane, the pilot doesn’t fly with their helmet touching the roof.’
Martin adds that in a sports car seat, the driver and passenger lean back with their knees up, rather than sitting upright in the seat, which is required for ejection.
‘After Bond pressed the button, it would take only one second before the passenger was no longer in the car,’ he says. Therefore Bond wouldn’t need to worry about alerting his gun-wielding assailant to his plans halfway through the manoeuvre.
He adds: ‘There would be no difference in the shape of the seat. Maybe the passenger would wonder why his seat was hard plastic rather than Bond’s nice leather driver’s seat, but there would be no other clues as to what was underneath him.’
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| Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC |
Martin does say, however, that Bond would need some sort of protection between him and the passenger, otherwise he’d get a nasty burn when the rocket-propelled ejector seat took off.
Source: James Bond 007: 7 Bond stunts – E & T Magazine
Goldfinger’s ejector seat stunt: IMPOSSIBLE
Pirita and Mika, Finland´s first James Bond bloggers, visiting 007 filming and book locations.