An escape pod, escape capsule, life capsule, or lifepod is a capsule or craft, usually only big enough for one person, used to escape from a vessel in an emergency. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose. Escape pods are ubiquitous in

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

but are only used in a few real vehicles.

Real life

* Because they were intended to fly too high and fast for safe use of conventional

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocke ...

s, the

Bell X-2 The Bell X-2 (nicknamed "Starbuster") was an X-plane research aircraft built to investigate flight characteristics in the Mach 2–3 range. The X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly in 1945 by Bell Aircraft Corp ...

B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic A ...

XB-70 Valkyrie The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the planned B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration supersonic strategic bomber for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. Designed in the late 1950s by North Ame ...

F-111 The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons ...

and B‑1A Lancer all used enclosed

escape crew capsule An escape crew capsule is an escape capsule that allows one or more occupants of an aircraft or spacecraft to escape from the craft while it is subjected to extreme conditions, such as high speed or altitude. The occupant remains encapsulated an ...

s of some kind. ** A similar concept OSCAR (Optimum Survival Containment and Recovery), was intended for the

Vought F-8 Crusader The Vought F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) is a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft built by Vought for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps (replacing the Vought F7U Cutlass), and for the French ...

. * The single submarine of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

"Mike"-class,

K-278 Komsomolets K- or k- may refer to: *K-, insensitivity to the K spot test *, a negatively charged kaon *K-, a prefix meaning the Korean Wave such as K-pop, K-drama Korean dramas (; RR: ''Han-guk deurama''), more popularly known as K-dramas, are televisi ...

had an escape capsule, which was jettisoned upon its sinking in 1989. Other Soviet submarines like the Oscar-class are only rumored to have escape capsules. During the sinking of the ''

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German str ...

'', the crew was unable to reach it. Also the

Typhoon-class The Typhoon class, Soviet designation Project 941 ''Akula'' (russian: Акула, meaning " shark", NATO reporting name Typhoon), is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines designed and built by the Soviet Union for the Sovie ...

is rumored to have escape pods located near or in the

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

. Evidence for this can be found in a German documentary on the ''Typhoon''-class submarine ''Severstal''. The

Shishumar class submarine The ''Shishumar''-class submarines are diesel-electric attack submarines, currently in active service with the Indian Navy. These submarines are an Indian variant of the Type 209 submarines developed by the German yard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Wer ...

has an IKL-designed integrated escape sphere. The sphere has accommodations for the entire crew with an eight-hour air supply.

Fiction

Escape pods are frequently depicted as being used by large spacecraft in science fiction, for example the

Millennium Falcon The ''Millennium Falcon'' is a fictional starship in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'' (1977), it has subsequently appeared in ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), ''The Em ...

in ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'', the Axiom in ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American computer animation, computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by ...

'', and the vessels of

Starfleet Starfleet is a fictional organization in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets ("the Federation") as the principal means for conduc ...

in ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

''. The 1981 film '' Lifepod'' and the 1993 TV film of the same name both revolve around such vehicles.

References

{{reflist

External links

Detachable Pilotable Capsules and Aircrafts [sic
/nowiki> Including Detachable Pilotable Capsules">ic">Detachable Pilotable Capsules and Aircrafts [sic
/nowiki> Including Detachable Pilotable Capsules Aircraft emergency systems Fictional spacecraft by type Rescue equipment

Real life

Fiction

See also

References

External links