Dilbert Dunker

The Dilbert Dunker is a device for training pilots on how to correctly escape a submerged plane.

Dilbert Dunker in Naval Air Station Whidbey Island now replaced by a newer system for egress training

It was invented by Ensign Wilfred Kaneb, an aviation engineer at NAS Pensacola, in 1943–1944.[1][2]

Originally named the "Underwater Cockpit Escape Device," the device was known since its earliest days as the "Dilbert Dunker" in reference to Dilbert Groundloop, a World War II-era cartoon character in Navy aviation training videos and posters who is incapable of doing things right.[1]

The original Dilbert Dunker combined the forward fuselage of an SNJ Texan—including "all equipment in the cockpit that would hinder a pilot’s exit" (instrument panel, stick, and pedals)—with a 45 degree rail that sends the cockpit from a high stand at the deep end of the training pool; at the end of the run under water it flips over to simulate a water ditching. The cockpit would hit the water at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) before inverting. The preflight student must detach the communication wire from the helmet, release the seat and shoulder harness, dive still deeper and swim away from the "aircraft" at a 45 degree angle to the surface for the purpose of assuming that the water around an actual situation has burning fuel on the surface.[1]

The Dunker was still in use as of 1997,[2] and a helicopter-specific version remains in service as of 2013, even though the original version has fallen out of service.[1]

The device was featured in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger.[1][2]

The device is used as a test for astronauts in the novel The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.

References
  1. "The Birth of the 'Dilbert Dunker'". National Naval Aviation Museum. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  2. Kaneb, Wilfred (August 1997). "Dilbert Memories". Popular Science. Bonnier Corporation. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
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