Different Mk 8 Ejector Seats

[Janx]

Received 3 sets of Pavla seats today, they look real nice. Saw the cockpit set on Hannants too, I know I should have waited a couple of weeks...

Looking at the seats got me thinking, I know i had some photos of the MK 8 seats from a guy who worked for Martin Baker about 15 years ago, so I started to have a hunt around in the loft.. not going to go up there again in a hurry, its scarey mum.

After about an hour of searching through boxed kits rocking chairs and other stuff I finally found them... heres the prob the seats look different, especially the one identified to me as the rear seat, the front seat looks different too (only just) with a label on the side of the parachute box indentifying it.

There could be a couple of reasons for this, either they are development seats that never went in an aircraft, or the final production versions, any ideas? I have a few other photos of the seats mainly of the underside and rear. sorry for the poor quality, I had to reduce them quite a bit.

Hopefully with the end of my college course looking I can finally get round to actually finishing a kit! had to edit this post as I didn't get the title right.

[TsrJoe]

looks like in one pic the seat is in its upper and the second its lower position on the rear rocket box unit, would explain the bit sticking out above the headrest which we dont usually see. I think when fitted both front and rear seats were similar in configuration to the one in the first image shown

[DamienB]

Yes, the 'seat' part of the entire assembly was height adjustable and could be motored up and down, hence the apparent difference in the top of the seat in those two photos. Also see these:

[rickshaw]

Were the seats adjustable for individual height or were they adjusted up, when the canopy was open and down when it was closed (to aid ingress and egress)?

[DamienB]

Adjustable purely to suit individual aircrew. Pilots also varied the height for a better view when landing or flying into sun.

[PR19_Kit]

It's not actually mentioned anywhere but it looks to me as if the Mk 8 seats didn't have the black/yellow overhead firing blind, is that correct?

if so it makes modelling the seats a lot easier. 

[Gondor]

It's not actually mentioned anywhere but it looks to me as if the Mk 8 seats didn't have the black/yellow overhead firing blind, is that correct?

if so it makes modelling the seats a lot easier. 

From what I know I would agree with you Kit 

Gondor