Question

In World War II, there were several reported cases of airmen who jumped from their flaming airplanes with no parachute to escape certain death. Some fell about 21,161 feet (6450 m), and some of them survived, with few life threatening injuries. For these lucky pilots, the tree branches and snow drifts on the ground allowed their deceleration to be relatively small.

If we assume that a pilot's speed upon impact was 116 mph (52 m/s), then what was his deceleration (in m/s2)? Assume that the trees and snow stopped him over a distance of 3.3 m. (Enter the magnitude.) For comparison, experiments have shown that humans can survive decelerations of at least 450 m/s². This was demonstrated by Air Force Colonel John Stapp in 1954.

Answer 1