USS Constellation

So aviation airman.

My first command was USS Constellation, CV-64, Kitty Hall class carrier.

Favorite, best ship in the world.

Out of Virginia? No, it's out of San Diego.

I just want to go home.

And sure enough, they're like, see me recruit Marachi, USS Constellation, CV-64, North Island, Coronado, California.

I'm like,

Yes.

They were newlyweds who had driven over 2,000 miles from San Diego, California to Nashville in a battered old GMC pickup truck.

Rob was an aspiring country musician, a Navy veteran who had served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation before deciding to pursue a career as a singer-guitarist.

His wife Kelly believed in him completely.

They had arrived in Nashville that afternoon with almost no money, running on dreams and fumes.

First such automatic seat, the Martin-Baker Mk 2, entered service with the RAF in 1953.

However, the time and distance it took for the parachute to fully deploy, at least 60 meters or 200 feet for a conventional 28-foot canopy, restricted ejection seat use to a certain envelope of minimum altitudes and airspeeds, making many emergency scenarios, for example, an airman losing engine power while taking off from an aircraft carrier, impossible to safely escape.

Solving this problem meant launching the seat higher above the aircraft, which in turn meant increasing the power of propellant cartridges.

However, at a certain point, the extreme acceleration risked inflicting severe spinal injuries to the user.

Both crewmen ejected horizontally at nearly zero altitude, but again suffered no injuries.

Pilots have even survived ejections below zero altitude.

For example, in June of 1969, US Navy aviator Lieutenant Russ Pearson attempted to land his Vought A-7 Corsair II aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation.

But while his tailhook caught the third arresting wire, the aircraft careened off the deck and plunged into the water.