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Jumping out of an aeroplane with its wings still attached and the engine happily spinning takes a certain kind of person. Doing it regularly certainly takes it up a notch, while strapping yourself into an ejector seat for a live test takes it to a completely different level. Enter Doddy Hay.
I read The Man in the Hot Seat in my teens and it’s a book that’s stayed in the back of my mind ever since. I managed to find a copy in one of the many bookshops in the Charing Cross Road, London, a few years ago.
It covers his early life, his attempts to get into the wartime Air Force after an unfortunate accident followed by his subsequent wartime career as a tail gunner. Post war he became Chief Instructor at the RAF School of Physical Training, becoming a parachute instructor and member of the UK skydiving team ultimately leading to a meeting with James Martin of the famed Martin Baker ejector seat company.
Resigning his Air Force commission in 1958, he went to work on retainer for Martin Baker. Doddy Hay was not the first ejector seat tester for the company, Benny Lynch, a Martin Baker fitter holds that distinction, but he took part in some of the most important test firings.
His first from a Vickers Valiant was testing a proposed rear crew member ejector seat for Britain’s V-force, followed by more capable rocket powered Zero-Zero seats, one of which he demonstrated from the back of a truck at the 1961 Paris Air Show which turned out to be somewhat bad for his health.
Thankfully for him and his spine, the need for live testing diminished in the mid-1960s and his career at Matin Baker ended, as does the book in a rather short two-page epilogue.
Doddy Hay had an additional career in journalism which became his primary and less-risky career once his testing days were over.
All-in-all, it still makes an interesting read, running through the founding of the Martin Baker company, an insight into James Martin and a fascinating test pilot anecdote about Chuck Yeager that was doing the rounds during his Farnborough days. If you can find a copy, it’s worth it.
Here’s some more related subjects that are worth looking up on the web.
Colonel John Stapp, effects of deceleration using a rocket sled.
Colonel Joseph Kittinger, Project Manhigh, Project Excelsior, Project Stargazer.
Felix Baumgartner, Red Bull Stratos project.
PHOTO: The Martin-Baker Mk.7 and a half ejector seat testbed