Why Did The US Military use Bears as Pilots?

Why did the US Military use Bears as Pilots?

Well the cold war was basically one extremely dangerous big dick competition. One way the US wanted to get ahead was through making a bomber that was faster and could fly higher than anything the Russians had.

This took shape in the form of the Convair B-58 Hustler, the first bomber capable of mach 2 flight. But there was a big problem with this revolutionary aircraft, it killed you.

See in 1959 one of these bombers crashed. Luckily all three crew managed to eject but unfortunately one died anyway. Turns out ejecting at breakneck speeds, well breaks your neck.

So a fella named Bob Stanley invented a new type of ejection seat, one that fully enclosed the pilot in a capsule, then launched itself into the air and ejected a parachute, theoretically safely bringing the pilot to the ground.

But this was all in theory, they needed someone, or something to test it. That something came in the form of young Himalayan and American Black Bears. But why bears? Well they were closer to the weight and stature of humans than the usual test subjects of chimpanzees and dogs.

So in 1962, they heavily sedated a bear, stuck it in a B-58 and ejected it into the sky at Mach 1.3. It then safely made its way down to the ground and after examination was found to be completely fine. Success.

So they ramped up the speed and conducted more bear based tests. But, even at Mach 1.6 the bear was fine, mostly anyway. It suffered a fractured pelvis, a hemorrhage in the neck muscles and a nose bleed but it did survive. In total they conducted 6 bear based tests. Although a few more injuries occurred they were all deemed reversible.

They then moved onto human trials with even better success, installing the capsules on all B-58s. But what happened to those bears? Well they received “The Usual Complete medical examination” after their tests which is code for they were killed and then cut open to observe the effects on their internal organs.

So in reality no bear survived their time as a test pilot, sorry paddington.