Thanks to Walter Santi

From: The Center for the Study of Technology and Society

Gino P. Santi was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1916. He studied civil engineering at City College and then served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. For four years, he worked on aviation engineering at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (a precursor to NASA). Then, in the late 1940s, Santi was hired by the U.S. Air Force to find a way to safely eject pilots from their planes.

As you would expect, escape systems are vital to military aircraft -- but they had not kept pace with other aviation technology. By the 1940s, military planes flew so fast that pilots rarely had time to open the canopy (the transparent cockpit cover), climb out and parachute away. Any pilot who had time enough to jump then ran the high risk of smashing into his own plane or snagging his parachute lines. Although there were a few automated ejection systems, they often broke the pilot's back or hurled the pilot into the propellers.

Santi led the engineering team that designed the first system that could safely toss a pilot far above the aircraft. Santi then continued to improve ejection technology, designing rocket-powered ejection seats, rapid-opening parachutes, and a system for safely ejecting the pilot through a closed canopy.

He also invented an automatic lap belt, as well as a rapid inflation technology that was used in car airbags. Santi died on April 3, 1997 at the age of 81.

Gino Santi's son, Vic Santi, continued his father's work on ejection systems.

Today in Technology History - Apr 3
http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/apr3.htm