The companies that produce ejection seats for aircraft maintain clubs for the people who have been launched out of an airplane on their equipment: a rumored, secretive group of pilots who have had to ditch. Martin-Baker, a British company that builds ejection seats, contacts ejectees and welcomes them to their club with a membership card, a certificate, a pin, a patch and an enviable necktie depicting the logo painted on the side of jets that warns passengers that the cockpit contains an ejection seat, a prized piece of apparel at air shows. By their count, their seats have saved 7,827 lives since the first successful ejection in 1949. They also offer a custom Bremont watch that retails for $5,000 but is offered to ejection survivors at cost.
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