Science / Medicine : Ejectable Cabin Seen as Air Safety Device

A commercial jetliner is flying at 5,000 feet when a fire breaks out. As the flames leap higher, the crew loses control of the plane, and . . . tragedy.

Stories like this might have a different ending thanks to an invention recently patented by Peter Diamond of Tunkhannock, Pa.

Called the Airplane Safety Body Passenger Compartment, the invention is a detachable passenger cabin that can be ejected when an airliner is in trouble.

“The compartment rides on diagonal rails attached to the inside of the plane’s fuselage,” says Diamond. “When a pilot feels he has no hope of safely landing his aircraft, he puts it on automatic pilot, goes back into the passenger area, closes the airtight door and hits a release mechanism. When he does this, the plane’s tail blows off and four hydraulic arms thrust up and launch the compartment 40 to 50 feet above the rest of the aircraft.”

The upward force of the ejection would keep passengers down in their seats. Once the compartment is free of the rest of the plane, nine huge parachutes open and slow its fall.

“The compartment descends at the same rate as an ordinary sky-diver,” explains Diamond, “and when it hits the ground, air bags on the compartment’s underside cushion the impact.”

Diamond thought about saving people from air disasters when he was a young man building model airplanes. At age 16, he got his pilot’s license. He now remembers thinking about the problem when he was flying biplanes in the 1930s. Today, at age 71, he believes he has finally patented the solution. “The idea evolved the same way an amoeba might evolve into a human being--little by little.”