Kaman KSA-100 SAVER

The Kaman KSA-100 SAVER, short for Stowable Aircrew Vehicle Escape Rotorseat, was an unusual American escape device for naval combat aircraft: an ejection seat that turned into a small gyroplane. After ejection a drogue parachute slowed the seat and two telescopic rotor blades folded inside it opened within four seconds, then two seconds later a Williams WRC-19 turbofan ran up to full power so that the seat could fly away from the crash scene. Kaman made over 1,500 air drops to test the rotor, and NASA tested a full scale unpowered unit in a wind tunnel in 1970. The seat made its first towed flight on 28 December 1971 and a free flight the next day, the first jet powered gyroplane flights, but only one was built and the Navy cancelled the program because it did not think the idea viable.