Your Front Row Seat to All Things Ejection Pod (September 25, 2024)

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Are you an ejection seat fellow or a space pod person? Per our recent conversation on the CIC Discord, here's a quick walk through Wing Commander ejection seats starting with Wing Commander I's guy in a leather jacket and jeans with a 2001 spacesuit backpack:





Wing Commander II keeps the outfit but has a modern ejection seat... and a cool silver version for the Kilrathi!





Privateer's take on the same idea; looks a bit like NASA's MMU. You can't actually eject in Privateer but certain enemies will... and when you tractor them in they become slaves that you can sell.





Wing Commander III has polygonal ejection pods for both humans and Kilrathi. And they're... pretty thicc!





And if you've ever shot a Kilrathi pod you've probably seen it fly off screen in a crazy direction. It actually explodes into three gorey pieces in the process but they flash by too quickly to readily notice:





There's a gross human destroyed seat model, too!





Wing Commander IV drops the exposed suit concept for a hard body ejection pod (despite using many of the same spacecraft models).





And Wing Commander Prophecy gives us something like the shuttle rescue balls from the 80s!





Super Wing Commander has a blink-and-you-miss it ejection mesh that seems to be a pod that comes out of your destroyed ship.





And Privateer 2 has... this! There's no way (or point to) ejecting yourself but you rescue these things all the time.





Wing Commander Academy has these Confederation ejection pods, which seem to be single person, two people (seen when a Broadsword has a pilot and co-pilot) and then a capital ship lifeboat.





The Kilrathi have a basic design with maybe some slight differences. That's the Dralthi, Grikath and then the one from the dreadnaught (which has two seats side by side instead of one).





The movie has Angel eject in what's basically the top part of her Rapier.





Last, but not least, there are a number of great ejection seats pictured in the Wing Commander card game. From both the Terran and Kilrathi perspective, we get the actual moment of ejection, capture of an enemy pilot and recovery of a friendly. Both sides geat a "seat" rather than a pod.




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Original update published on September 25, 2024
 
In WC1 and WC2, we also know from the interior hand animation that our Blair isn't wearing gloves...

I see the similarity in shape of the Prophecy pod to the Space Shuttle Personal Rescue Enclosure, but the latter is made of fabric. Given the texturing, is it likely that the Prophecy artists were inspired by the ejection capsule for the B-58 Hustler, as seen below?

B-58_Escape_Capsule.jpg


(Can anyone find a color photo of the similar capsule for the XB-70 Valkyrie? There are a lot of pictures claiming to show it, but they look suspiciously like this specific display of the B-58 capsule. The only ones I could find were the single drawing and photo linked on this page, which suggests that the XB-70 capsule was quite different.)
 
In WC1 and WC2, we also know from the interior hand animation that our Blair isn't wearing gloves...

I see the similarity in shape of the Prophecy pod to the Space Shuttle Personal Rescue Enclosure, but the latter is made of fabric. Given the texturing, is it likely that the Prophecy artists were inspired by the ejection capsule for the B-58 Hustler, as seen below?

Yup, and we've posted that very picture in the news before! https://www.wcnews.com/news/2010/04/12/not-much-changes-in-700-years
 
Yup, and we've posted that very picture in the news before! https://www.wcnews.com/news/2010/04/12/not-much-changes-in-700-years
It's good to know I wasn't the first person to think that. These airplanes may not have flown in space, but they came close. Their capsules, and the Vostok ejection seat, remain the closest thing to spacecraft ejection systems yet built.

Thank you for all the pictures of the XB-70 pod, that's amazing with all the inflatable pieces and the tiny parachutes on the stabiliser booms.

Back to the WC1 leather jacket and jeans, they may not look like much, but they can keep Blair alive through any mission in the game, including Hell's Kitchen 4. Does he get left behind as the Tiger's Claw jumps out? No, if you eject for the first time during that mission, they take the time to assemble everyone on the hangar deck and award him a Golden Sun before the Tiger's Claw jumps out!

In WC4, is there any mission after Blair defects where he gets rescued by the Border Worlds and the game continues? Or do all ejections from then point onwards end with his capture and execution?
 
Looking at the files there are a bunch you can skip, particularly in Circe and Speradon where winning or losing the mission doesn't matter beyond blocking you from getting some reward. After C/S you have to win everything to continue! (The Border World ejection seat is the same model as the Confed one).

Silenos D2 Nebula Sweep
Orestes E1 Convoy in Distress
Orestes G1 Rescue Kilrathi
Pasqual G2 Confederation in Disguise
Orestes G3 Escort Melek
Peleus J1 Dead Zone
Circe KA Shut Down Tanks
Circe KB Cover Transport
Circe KC Search-and-Destroy
Circe K3A Catscratch
Circe K3B Catscratch
Speradon LA Steal Fighter
Speradon LB Attack Plant
Speradon LC Attack Carrier
Speradon L3A Tough Decision
Speradon L3B Tough Decision
 
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