Identify MA-2 with strange fittings

[teararia]

Good day and happy weekend:-)

Had this strange MA-2 from years and still lokking for any info as I've never seen MA-2 harness with this strange fittings added. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks for now. Andrea

[mohawkALSE]

Not many of those MA-2 harnesses seem to have had them but they appear to be a vertical survival kit restraint strap as used on some of the older Martin Baker seats that attach to the lap belt.  This one is clearly Navy, but I have documentation from the Army showing a early MA-2 with the buckles for them as well as the usual Quick Fit harness used in the OV-1 Mohawk with the Mk-J5 and J5B ejection seats.  There was a small lanyard called the survival kit retention strap attached to the female buckle half of the lap belt that clipped to that small loop on the 1 strap fitting on the harness.  Id like to see the actual Navy use or setup of these seeing I'm only familiar with it from the Army OV-1 Mohawk.

 

Again these images are from the Army OV-1 operators manual, so the setup maybe slightly different but you will get the idea of what its function is.   The image with both the Navy type MA-2 and the Army type Quick Fit harnesses you can see the black adjustable buckles are the chest that the vertical straps attach to.  The image with the harness and parachute assembly show the vertical straps installed (item 12) and the final image shows the soft pack seat type kit, which is similar to a USN PK-2 soft pack survival kit and how the restraint, and retention straps come together with the lap belt.  Some times some of the seat pan retention straps shown had female RJE fittings installed on them if using the MA-2 harness.

[teararia]

Thanks really so much for this useful info on the MA-2.

Didn't know was used for that reason and always finded so strange there never been made a MA-2 in that way and always added later...Thanks again so much really much appreciated:-)

Andrea

 

[RWW]

 Your MA-2 harness is set up for use in the A-6 Intruder with the Martin-Baker GRU5 ejection seat.

[mohawkALSE]

1 hour ago, RWW said:

 Your MA-2 harness is set up for use in the A-6 Intruder with the Martin-Baker GRU5 ejection seat.

Bob,

Now that makes total sense,  I figured it had to be a older MB seat but couldn't put my finger on which one.  I recall those earlier Intruder seats had the ugly orange seat pads sort of like what J5 and J5B seats in the OV-1 had.  Do you have any good pics of the correct GRU-5 seat for the Navy?

[HUD69]

Thanks to this topic, I knew what kind of MA-2 I found yesterday (and added to the collection)

 

 

 

This one is dated 1972, my guess is that the lower part needs the D rings?

 

 

Cheers,

Ron

[RWW]

I would have thought that harness would have the "D-Rings" like the harness in the 3rd picture down in Post 1. Those are Rocket Jet fittings. I thought those were a solid piece and the only wat to get them off would be to cut them off.  I am not sure when the change from Rocket Jet to "Mini-Koch's" was, but the Mini-Kochs were easily removed and are often missing from harnesses.  Below is a picture of a harness that was put in service with Mini-Kochs on it. They may be what you are looking for.

[HUD69]

To stay on topic, in my archives of images, I have found these three from an early MA-2. As far as I recall, this one (not mine) came with an A-6A checklist.

The connector for the survivalkit is coming from the lower part of the suit (attached to the inside?)

 

Cheers

Ron

[mohawkALSE]

The survival kit retention straps appear to be directly on the harness underneath the cloth suit portion.  Id love to find one of these earlier MA-2s with the adjustable RJE fittings for the risers and the regular D RJEs at the bottom plus the survival kit retention straps for the lap belt.   The handful I have seen were all converted to Koch fittings up top for the risers.  Never saw a pic of an Army Mohawk crew wearing an MA-2 like the old -10 mentioned but if I could find the correct one Id love to have it.