Detail ... A - Where office chair is fixed to E/seat {front}.
B - Detail of arm rest hinges. C - Drogue gun. D - Further detail of arm rests. |
I bought this seat from the U.K. through ebay.I am a bit of a plane nut and have thought for a while that it would be cool to modify an ejection seat for everyday use.
This seat is from an Avro Vulcan bomber. This aircraft was an integral part of the U.K's nuclear deterrent back in the heady days of the cold war. |
Detail... E - Pull handle and good job on the upholstry.
F - Detail of B-57 control column {1}. G - Detail of B-57 control column {2}. H - Office base attachment & steel base {back}. |
To mount the seat on wheels I had to have a solid base. This was made with 3mm steel and rivited to the chair {A & H}.
Next were the arm rests again from 3mm steel {D} with pvc machined hinges {B}. An unforseen problem was the depth of the seat. I had to build this up with steel box section. The control column is steel so it was welded to one of the arm rests {F & G}. |
This is the finished product. It took about five weeks of staying late in work and a total of about 900 euro to have every thing done.
I had originally designed a dedicated stand for this. But one evening looking at an office chair I thought 'what if ' ? It proved tricky to get the balancing right but it's perfect now. I had to make the arm rests from scratch and welded on a control column from a B-57 that I had {That's another bomber}. The upholstry worked out at about half the total cost and took over a week. I nearly copped out and settled on vinyl. But decided to do the chair justice, take the hit and get all leather. I am very happy with the result although almost everybody else thinks i'm loosing my marbles. Mick. |