Doddy Hay - Test Parachutist (Martin-Baker)
 When the war ended his he was identified as a qualified teacher and transferred to staff duties as a physical fitness officer, It was while serving in Italy that he was introduced to parachuting which was to become a lifelong addiction. His next move was to RAF College Cranwell and the award of a permanent RAF commission. He led his first parachute course at the college as a holiday activity for cadets becoming the colleges parachute officer and later training both RAF and Army cadets from Sandhurst. His next move was onto the parachute school at Abingdon in Oxfordshire with additional duties as the RAF liaison officer to the British Airborne forces at Aldershot. It was while here that he met the test pilots who flew with the Empire Test pilot school then based at Farnborough. They were most interested in his experiences in parachuting from aircraft in unusual attitudes, which he had been experimenting with to add drama to his parachute demonstrations at Air shows & Festivals. In 1954 he won a place in the five man British team for the world skydiving championships, they placed sixth which was a credible effort considering that the members of the team had only been confirmed a short time before the event after a rigorous selection process and they had only managed one day of official practise. |
 The test of the prototype ejection seat for the v-bombers took place over Chalgrove on the 1st July 1960, the modified Valiant flying from Finningly, he suffered a spinal injury in that test because his large helmet prevented him from having a straight enough back, later he also badly broke his ankle demonstrating the rocket ejection seat at a French Air Show when wind blew him onto the runway. His most serious injury though occurred after a rocket ejection test where the delay between cartridge ejection of the seat and the ignition of the rocket motor was too great resulting in massive g-forces to his body. He was by no means the first test parachutist for Martin-Baker, that honor going to Benny Lynch, a Martin-Baker fitter who had tested the very first Martin-Baker seats and was the first British man to eject from a jet aircraft. He was also not the first to be injured perfecting the technology required to escape from increasingly fast jet aircraft. His test of the Martin-Baker zero-Zero ejection seat on the 1st April 1961 was merely one step in a long development process which has resulted in ejection seats for a multitude of jet aircraft which have saved over 7,000 lives to date. |
Testing Martin-Baker ejection seat on static test rig at Denham in 1944 While working for Martin-Baker he was paid only on a retainer basis and for each test, his fulltime career was as a journalist which he continued after his last test which had also left him seriously injured. His bravery and contribution to flight crew safety is incalculable but advances in technology have now rendered it unnecessary for lives to be put in peril as was needed in the early days of ejection seat development. His book The Man in the Hot Seat is a fasinating read and I recommend it highly. |