June 26, 2023
Our next-generation ACES 5 ejection seat helps those born to fly live to walk away. Built on a legacy going back 45 years, Collins’ ACES seats have successfully ejected more than 700 pilots. Learn more about our state-of-the-art ACES 5 technology.
April 27, 2022
Collins Aerospace’s family of ACES ejection seats have saved more than 694 lives to date, including two recent ejections.
February 11, 2022
With tradeshows being held in-person again, our ejection seat team is excited to showcase the industry’s most advanced ejection seat at several events across the world.
June 30, 2021
Pete Ford, Requirements & Capabilities Director for Raytheon Technologies, discusses his military experience and how ejecting from an F-15 at 2,000 feet has become his "Grasshopper" story.
May 26, 2021
A recent Defence-Blog.com article featured a uniqe perspective of our ACES 5 ejection seat being tested on the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk.
April 27, 2021
How have evolving safety criteria affected the development of the ACES 5® ejection seat?
March 31, 2021
Chris "Elroy" Stricklin began a new morning ritual on Sept. 15, 2003 — the day after he ejected from his U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 fighter jet in an ACES II® ejection seat.
November 20, 2020
Thanks to our ACES® II ejection seat, this pilot is safe and lives to fly another day.
Don “Dozer” Borchelt discusses the technological evolution from the ACES II® seat to the ACES 5® next-generation ejection seat.
November 20, 2020
Collins was recently awarded a sole-source $700 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the delta qualification, production and fielding of a next generation ejection seat for various Air Force aircraft.
June 7, 2020
Thanks to our ACES® II ejection seat, this pilot is safe and lives to fly another day.
April 26, 2020
ACES 5’s unique features include a faster deploying drogue parachute and a stability package (STAPAC) to compensate for pitch changes due to varied aircrew weight and aerodynamic effects, thereby reducing the risk for injury.
December 31, 2019
While logistics and provisioning support is ongoing, the team completed the four major milestone reviews earlier this year — system verification review, functional configuration audit, production readiness review and physical configuration audit.
A small team of Collins Aerospace employees within our Ejection Seats & Propulsion business in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was honored recently for designing an innovative seat retrofit kit and qualifying it to meet the latest U.S. Air Force airworthiness requirements.
November 19, 2019
The U.S. Air Force recently notified Collins Aerospace of its intent to sole-source the Next Generation Ejection Seat (NGES) program with our ACES 5® ejection seat.
October 21, 2019
If unfortunate events happen, it’s good to know Collins Aerospace and ACES are there for aircrew who are born to fly so they can eject safely and live to walk away.
When then-U.S. Air Force (USAF) Lt. Col. Bob Harvey took off in his F-16 for a training mission at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina on Nov. 19, 1998, he had no idea he wouldn’t be landing as usual. Almost at the very instant he raised his landing gear, his engine immediately shut down.
September 8, 2019
With recent appearances at SAFE EU and the Paris Air Show, the ACES 5 ejection seat and team have been a busy.
July 11, 2019
Collins Aerospace has conducted several major reviews on the upgraded version of its ACES II ejection seat for the U.S. Air Force’s Safety and Sustainment Improvement Program (SSIP) for B-2 bombers. After closing out final action items, deliveries are on track to begin this summer.
June 26, 2019
Credited with saving more than 664 lives since 1978, another ACES save can be added to that counter when a pilot had to eject from a F-16.
April 26, 2019
In our first profile, meet John "Barney" Fyfe. As Director of Air Force Programs, Barney interfaces with US and international Air Forces, Joint Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to promote safety and awareness of ACES 5.
January 31, 2019
When the U.S. Air Force flies its new advanced pilot trainer from Boeing and Saab, it will be equipped with an ACES 5® ejection seat from Collins Aerospace, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), along with a fully integrated landing gear system.
January 21, 2019
United Technologies Corp (UTC) will start deliveries this year of its upgraded ejection seat for the Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit bomber, according to a company spokesman.
November 7, 2018
The ACES 5 team recently completed the latest in a series of tests. To simulate realistic conditions, the rocket-powered test rig accelerated to 600 KEAS (Knots Equivalent Airspeed) before successfully ejecting two advanced flight test manikins on ACES 5 seats. Several media outlets joined, resulting in the coverage below.
September 27, 2018
After a spirited competition, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has selected the Boeing/Saab team to provide 350 state-of-the-art T-X trainer aircraft and associated ground-based training systems.
September 17, 2018
Meet the anthropomorphic test dummies whose main objective is to simulate human ejections from an aircraft at various speeds and record test data through a series of high-precision sensors.
Rising from the flat landscape known as Hurricane Mesa is the only private supersonic-capable aircraft ejection test track in the United States, owned and operated by UTC Aerospace Systems. It’s here where LOIS has worked the test track for decades.
September 14, 2018
The ACES 5, which could also see use in the forthcoming T-X trainer jet, uses everything from nets to gyroscopic rockets to carry pilots from a plane that flies 50,000 feet off the ground at near supersonic speeds to the ground with minimal risk.
June 30, 2018
Our latest ACES 5® ejection seat is a product of years of research, investment, testing, and advanced design. But it is also a study in precision craftsmanship and teamwork.
Air Forces around the world depend on us, and so do the families of these intrepid airmen. When an aircrew is forced to eject, they, their families, and their countrymen and women trust we did our job perfectly and they are sitting in an ejection seat with the latest advancements and technology available.
May 31, 2018
The latest addition to the UTC Aerospace Systems family of Advanced Concept Ejection Seats, the ACES 5® incorporates significant safety and cost saving upgrades. Engineers have combined the unparalleled spinal safety performance of the ACES II® ejection seat with next-generation head, neck, and limb protection for all aviators.
May 31, 2018
Imagine you are piloting a B-2 Spirit and your bomber has experienced some type of catastrophic damage or system failure. You assess the situation—it’s clear that the aircraft is no longer flyable, and you and your co-pilot need to eject.
May 14, 2018
How to protect aircrew when their helmets instantly become 70 pounds heavier
At 3 G’s, you’re feeling triple the pull on every pound of your body and whatever is attached to it. That means a 150-pound airman with 50 pounds of flight gear would experience 600 pounds of force. During an ejection, you would experience at least 8 G’s of force on your body.
